Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa held two meetings with the Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khatib and Portuguese Minister of State for Tourism Rita Marques to discuss ways to enhance cooperation between the three countries in the field of tourism and antiquities.
The meetings were held on the side-lines of the minister’s current visit to the Saudi capital of Riyadh to participate in the meetings of the 22nd Summit of the International Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which is being held under the title ‘Travel for a Better Future’ from 28 November to 1 December.
During his meeting with Al-Khatib in the presence of Egypt’s Ambassador in Riyadh Ahmed Farouk, the two sides emphasised the depth of the historical relations that bind the two brotherly countries, which witness cooperation in many fields, especially tourism and antiquities.
They also discussed the implementation of joint marketing programmes between the two countries targeting distant markets. Furthermore, they reviewed the preparations for a training plan and a joint work programme for 2023 for workers in the tourism and hotel sectors.
Additionally, Issa stressed the keenness to coordinate work mechanisms between the two countries to create more opportunities for cooperation by organising joint tourism programmes, pointing to the importance of continuing work between the technical teams from both sides to develop proposals and discuss them in the coming period.
For his part, Al-Khatib stressed the importance of cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia to develop the incoming tourism movement to the Middle East region, which contributes to the region obtaining its fair share of the global tourism movement.
Later, Issa met with Marques and Filipe Silva — Director of the National Tourism Board in Portugal — to discuss strengthening cooperation to increase the tourism movement coming from Portugal to Egypt, in addition to discussing the exchange of experiences between the two countries in the field of system management.
Issa also stressed the importance of benefiting from the experiences of Portugal, especially in hospitality, and finding new ways to foster partnership in the field of tourism training between the two countries by signing a memorandum of understanding.
