Enani participates in 5th annual conference of ‘Al-Ahram Al-Iqtisadi’

CAIRO – 11 July 2021: Egypt’s Minister of Tourism & Antiquities Khaled El-Enani participated in the opening session of the fifth edition of the annual conference "Al-Ahram Al-Iqtisadi" magazine, entitled "Sustainable Development & Digital Transformation: Opportunities & Challenges".

The conference was held in a Cairo hotel, in the presence of Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Saeed.

In the presentation he gave during the conference, Enani  reviewed the latest developments in the current situation of the tourism and antiquities file, after having merging the two ministries into one ministry for the second time on December 22, 2019 with the aim of integrating the two sectors, as tourism and archeology are two sides of the same coin. The first time they merged into a single ministry was from 1964 to 1966.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enani referred to the current strategy of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for sustainable development - Vision 2030, which came to achieve the goals of the Ministry for Sustainable Development 2030 after the merger and its connection with the United Nations goals for sustainable development 2030. He thanked the Minister of Planning and Economic Development for the support she provided in achieving these goals.

Furthermore, Enani explained that the ministry's strategy includes 6 axes: institutional and legislative reform; raising the competitiveness of the Egyptian tourist destinations; economic goals that are not only related to increasing the number of tourists, but also increasing the number of nights they spend as well as the tourism spending rates; targeting the more spending segments of tourists; enhancing social participation and raising the efficiency of human resources; maximizing the use of technology and preserving the ecological balance and the sustainability of tourism and archaeological activity.

Also, Enani spoke about the importance of the tourism industry for the national income, as almost one million individuals work directly with the tourism sector, and 2.4 million individuals are involved with the sector indirectly through the work of 70 complementary industries to the tourism industry.

Enani referred to a number of tourism statistics showing the rates of incoming tourism to Egypt during the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, pointing out that 2019 witnessed the highest rate in tourism and the highest tourism income, as the number of tourists reached about 13 million tourists and tourism income  reached $13 billion. During 2019, tourism contributed more than 15 percent of the GDP growth rate, achieving nearly 4 percent of the Egyptian state's total GDP.

He further explained that the average number of tourists received by Egypt from March 2021 to June of the same year reached more than 500,000 tourists per month, which constitutes about 45 percent of the number of tourists received by Egypt in the same period of 2019. The minister added that these rates are considered good compared to the neighboring destinations that possess average reception rates between 25 and 40 percent, which indicates the tourist's confidence in Egypt's public health measures.

In addition, Enani stressed that the tourism and antiquities sector in Egypt is witnessing great support from the Egyptian state, especially since the emergence of the global pandemic.