Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Anani has announced that the vaccination programme against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) targeting tourism workers in the Red Sea and South Sinai governorates will soon be completed.
El-Anani said that the programme has been undertaken in cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Ministry of Health and Population.
The Red Sea and South Sinai receive the largest number of tourists in Egypt, which gives strong reassurance internationally about traveling to Egypt.
The minister indicated that Egypt launched a campaign last April to vaccinate all workers in the tourism sector against the coronavirus, with the campaign beginning in the Red Sea and South Sinai governorates.
He indicated that the campaign, carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Population and the Chamber of Hotel Establishments, was intensive.
El-Anani reviewed the precautionary measures and health and safety controls that Egypt has put in place nationwide. These have been applied at airports, tourist and hotel establishments, museums, and archaeological sites across Egypt, to ensure the health and safety of all workers in the tourism sector, as well as citizens and tourists.
The strict measures were enforced alongside the resumption of inbound tourism to Egypt in July 2020. The minister explained that the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has approved these controls to give Egypt a safe travel seal.
El-Anani’s remarks came during interviews with UAE newspapers on the sidelines of Egypt’s participation at the Arab Tourism Market (ATM) 2021 trade show, which opened on Sunday and is set to continue until 19 May.
The minister inaugurated the Egyptian pavilion participating in the exhibition on Sunday. During his participation, El-Anani will hold several meetings with representatives from major tourism and aviation companies in the Arab market. These will come alongside a number of other media meetings with representatives from major newspapers, TV channels, and international news agencies.
During the interviews, the minister is to touch on the importance of Egypt’s participation in this exhibition, which is considered the first major tourism exhibition to be organised since the start of the global health crisis.
The event highlights that the Arab market is one of the most important for Egyptian tourism, as it represented more than 20% of inbound tourism to Egypt prior to the COVID-19 crisis.
El-Anani talked about the performance of Egyptian tourism during 2020 in light of the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis.
He noted that the indicators for inbound tourism to Egypt confirm that it saw a remarkable improvement since the resumption of tourism movement last July. A total of 3 million tourists have come to Egypt since then from more than 20 countries around the world.
