Egypt’s tourism sector has been witnessing great developments over the past couple of years. Egypt’s Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat told Daily News Egypt that tourism is firmly placed as one of Egypt’s fastest growing sectors and contributes by over 15% to the country’s economy and is one of the most important services exports.
DNE interviewed Al-Mashat, to find out the sector’s latest updates and future plans.
Could we talk about Ministry’s Egypt— Tourism Reform program?
On Nov 2018 , after ten months in office, with my team, I launched the Egypt—Tourism Reform Program (E—TRP) from the Egyptian Parliament.
This structural reform program is designed to change the narrative on Egyptian tourism. The vision is to achieve a sustainable tourism sector through implementing structural reforms that strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and are consistent with international standards.
The structural reform pillars are: Institutional, Legislative, Branding & Promotion, Infrastructure & Tourism Development, and International Tourism Trends. All this is directed to put Egypt on a sustainable path, consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The E-TRP is a framework. For each pillar, there are well defined goals and required procedures to achieve them.
Our overarching objective is that at least one individual from each household in Egypt works directly or indirectly in the tourism sector.
So far we have been walking with a steady pace in the successful implementation of many aspects of the pillars of the Egypt— Tourism Reform Program. The first monitoring report will be published next October.
As this year, the theme of the Euromoney is the fintech, so in your opinion how the technology benefit the tourism?
I think technological innovation and digital solutions are crucial to enhance competitiveness in the tourism sector.
E-TRP aims at improving the tourism sector in Egypt through making use of modern technology and adopting sustainable tourism strategies. This is covered in the last pillar “International Tourism Trends”. There is a section about digitalization
Last March, we organized a major regional tech forum for technological innovation in tourism, which was the first of its kind to be held in the Middle East. During this tech forum we conducted the first national competition for startups in the field of tourism, which was organized by the Ministry of Tourism in cooperation with UNWTO and powered by Rise-Up.
In your opinion, what is the role of tourism in supporting and developing the national economy?
Tourism is one of the world’s largest economic sectors supporting 1 in every 10 jobs globally and generating 10% of Global GDP.
Tourism is firmly placed as one of Egypt’s fastest growing sectors and contributes by over 15% to the country’s economy and is one of the most important services exports.
Our overarching objective is to have at least one individual from each Egyptian household working, either directly or indirectly, in the tourism sector.
