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Egypt saw a 40% growth in the number of tourists in the first nine months of 2018 compared to a year earlier.

“We expect that by the end of 2018 we will not be at the levels that we’ve seen in 2010, but we are approaching that,” Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Tourism Minister told the international media.

“In 2017 we closed the year at around 7.5 million (visitors). Since the start of 2018, the numbers are very handsome and there is a very steep slope of growth,” Al-Mashat added.

The Minister also informed that the government is planning to announce a new private equity fund to upgrade its hotels as well as new investment opportunities on islands in the Red Sea.

The government also plans to open a new 165,000 sqm Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in 2020 as part of an even larger 491,000 sq m complex two kilometres from the pyramids and the Sphinx of Giza. It will display more than 100,000 artefacts, including 20,000 that have never been on view before as well as all 5,400 that were discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.

“The government is trying to diversify tourist base, targeting travellers from Asia and Latin America. The USD 1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum, with more than 10,000 artefacts, will open in 2020,” added the Minister.

Source: travelnewsdigest.in