Tourism sector representatives and investors in Egypt’s Luxor city have presented a set of proposals supporting cultural tourism, during their meeting with Minister of Tourism Khaled Al-Anani.
The proposals include permitting visitors to conduct PCR tests upon their arrival at Luxor and Aswan airports.
This should be allowed, the representatives argued, in case tourists did not provide a negative PCR certificate from a maximum 72-hour period before their flight to Egypt.
The move would be similar to the facilities now provided at the airports in both Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, will help increase tourist traffic to the South Sinai and Red Sea Governorates in which the two cities lie.
The tourism stakeholders also demanded that golden and boutique hotels in Luxor are to be granted a tourist licence.
This would occur in addition to extending the timeframe for the “Summer in Upper Egypt” initiative, which was launched by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to encourage tourist visits to archaeological sites.
Under the initiative, foreign visitors to museums and archaeological sites in Upper Egypt have been granted a 50% reduction on full ticket prices until December. The end of the initiative will coincide with the planned start of the revival of cultural tourism in Egypt’s winter season.
The stakeholders also requested that the ministry consider lowering domestic airline fares for Luxor and Aswan. They argue that this would contribute to stimulating tourism to these two governorates.
During the meeting, the stakeholders and minister discussed the condition of Upper Egypt’s tourism sector. Al-Anani took note of their demands and proposals to push and revitalise the cultural tourism movement after its resumption as of early September.
During the meeting, the importance of the commitment to applying all precautionary measures, in addition to health and safety controls, for cultural tourism to resume was emphasised.
This would ensure that the resumption of tourism in Upper Egypt would be as successful as the resumption in the Red Sea and South Sinai Governorates.
Al-Anani indicated that Nile Cruises will start operating in October, but will be kept to a maximum capacity of 50% of their occupancy rates, according to the operating controls of floating hotels.
The minister indicated that all requests and proposals, and the possibility of implementing them, will be studied. He stressed that the state spares no effort in advancing Egypt’s tourism sector, and seeks to overcome all possible obstacles to push the work towards it, whilst providing the necessary support to alleviate this important sector.
