Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat

Egyptian Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat said Saturday that Egypt is currently implementing the necessary reforms to the laws and regulations governing the tourism sector.

She pointed out that the tourism sector represents 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to $8.3 trillion and provides 300 million job opportunities worldwide.

It also represents 30 percent of service exports and seven percent of the world’s exports, equivalent to $1.4 trillion.

Mashat confirmed that the tourism sector is considered a great hope for global economies, pointing out that all world countries are interested in it. Even countries that lack the required components try to exploit any resources to attract tourists, she added.

Since 2016, world tourism has begun to recover from the global economic crisis of 2008, Mashat explained during al-Ahram Economic Conference, indicating that countries compete among each other to attract more tourists.

“The Ministry has been playing an active role supervising and carefully following up Hajj and Umrah seasons to provide all necessary facilities for their success.”

“It is currently coordinating with concerned authorities to automate the Hajj and Umrah procedures in Egypt in order to facilitate the executive procedures for the Egyptian citizen to keep up with its counterpart in Saudi Arabia,” the Minister said.

On the other hand, Mashat explained that her ministry is working on amending the Tourism Law following the elections of the union of tourist chambers and the existence of elected councils that represent the private tourism sector, which represents 98 percent of the sector.

In regards to the development of infrastructure and tourism investment to maximize the sustainable development of the sector, Mashat said that the sustainable tourism development of a number of tourism centers will be completed in order to increase investments, in addition to the implementation of the 2030 strategy by maximizing the utilization of available resources to achieve three main objectives.

These objectives include diversifying the Egyptian tourism product, increasing the number of tourist nights, creating direct and indirect jobs and integrating the elements of the local community.