Locations of Holy Family's visit to Egypt to be renovated in 6 months

CAIRO - 14 May 2018: Prime Minister Sherif Ismail along with the Ministerial committee assigned to revive the monuments of the “Holly Family’s flight”, declared the completion of renovation works and its trial period will begin in a period of six months starting today May 13th.

This stage will consist of five individual sites amongst 25 total, in the areas of Masr Al Qadima, Al Maadi and Wady El Natron. The journey’s path is said to be 3500 KM in distance.

Ismail assigned the attendees of the meeting to create a group of representatives for the different entities that will be assigned to supervise all the works related to the project throughout its revival stages and alongside the path of the journey, especially during the period of trial and error, the preparation of the tent that is supposed to be prepared to welcome the visitors and to complete paper work related to the Ministry of Antiques.

The committee decided that all works should be done simultaneously in all the necessary spots along the sacred journey’s path. The meeting was attended by the ministers of antiques, tourism, local development in addition to the governors of Cairo and Al Beheira.

During the meeting, the Ministry of Tourism reviewed a report of the completed works, confirming the preparation to welcome visitors during the upcoming period. Part of the renovation works consists of preparing the surrounding areas of the five sites of the journey’s path to be able to support the works that is made in the specified sites. In the specific locations and surrounding areas the pavements have been fixed for visitors to walk freely and reorganizing of the traffic in the surrounding areas is also put in mind.

Signs with names and description of each site will be prepared to guide the public and shabby areas are being regarded for renovation works to support the touristic site and create an atmosphere in which the tourists can enjoy their time, yet find it easy to access any services they may need, such as toilets or restaurants, cafes and malls. This area should be prepared with universal touristic standards, to be able to get as much benefit from it as possible.

The aim of the renovation work is to encourage Religious tourism in Egypt, taking advantage of the amazing and unique monuments Egypt posseses and to create an educational, touristic experience for the visitors where they can enjoy sightseeing while being educated about the story behind it and its related matters.

The Holy Family came to Egypt, traveling for about three-and-a-half years across the country. What we have done is—and this project is not recent, we started it about two or three years ago— we picked eight locations in four cities and we readied them from the infrastructure perspective to receive the customers, clients and tourists,” Hesham el-Demery, chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board, told Egypt Today in April. 

To promote the tour, in collaboration with Egyptian authorities, Pope Francis visited Egypt later in April of 2017, carried out mass and acknowledged the Holy Family’s journey in Egypt as an official Christian pilgrimage. This announcement puts the Holy Family tour on equal footing to Fatima in Portugal, suggesting that thousands of Christian tourists would visit Egypt.

Ismail declared to reporters last April 2017, that the Tourism Ministry has devised a program to encourage tourists to visit the country to watch a unique artistic rendition of the religious story and to trace the journey’s trail that covers many Egyptian cities after Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph had fled King Herod’s persecution in Palestine.