Tourist Investment and Development Plans in Egypt

Introduction.

A heritage of 5000 rich and mysterious years continues to attract millions of travelers to Egypt over the years. This land has so much to offer. People from around the world with their different interest will find Egypt fascinating.

The tourism creates direct or indirect millions of jobs for the Egyptians. Jobs in tourism are very profitable comparing to the other fields in Egypt. The tourism has great impacts on the national economy in Egypt. Egypt has the potential to earn large sums from tourism. The Egyptian government is working on many tourist projects. The World Bank and other foreign investors contribute funds to accomplish these projects.

Egypt has a ministry specifically for the tourism. It concentrates on promoting Egypt in the international tourism markets through holding conferences and concluding agreements with countries that export tourist groups and organization exhibitions abroad to promote the various kinds of tourist groups.

Tourist Investment and Development Plans

Maintenance and face lifting of pharaoinc and Islamic monuments with some financial help from international bodies such as UNESCO is going on now. The Ministry of Tourism is intensifying domestic tourism and promoting the awareness of the importance of tourism as an export industry. In addition, the press and information bureau is Preparing tourist guidebooks and underlining the element of safety and security, and preparing an agenda of tourist events to attract festivals such as:

. The fishing tournament in Hurghada,

· The Arab horses festival in Sharqiah governorate

· Pharaonic rally

· The collective wedding

· Festive to commemorate the Nile thanks giving.

· The Alexandrias of the world festival

· The song festival

· The international rowing competition in Cairo and Luxor

· The squash championship

The Egyptian government encouraged and facilitated tourism projects such as: Incentives are offered to investors including the sale of land at $1 per square meter in designated tourism zones. This has resulted in a major expansion of tourism facilities. Red sea "Rivera" idea was one of fruits of the progress in the Middle East peace process. Egypt, Jordan and Israel are seriously discussing the creation of Red Sea "Middle East Rivera" including the Egyptian resort of Taba, the Israel resort of Eilat and the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

The Egyptian tourist bureaus abroad promote untraditional areas such as the Red Sea, Sinai, The Western North Coast and the New Valley. Sinai, one of these areas, is considered a tourist treasure that adds to Egypt's future new dimensions and areas of attraction for the int'l tourist market.

In order to increase national income from tourism, the state has directed part of the foreign investment capital to construct new hotels to accommodate the growing number of tourists.

The floating hotels—large boats that offer Nile Cruises are becoming very popular.

55 boats are on the Nile, their Cruises length range from 3 to 11 nights. Some 19 U.S. based hotel corporations are represented in Egypt, operating about 40 hotels. Hotel investors are being offered an incentive by the government by giving them more time from 5 to 15 years to pay taxes on supplied utilities, such as water, electricity, and new roads.

The Egyptian organization for tourism and hotels hopes to encourage an increase in tourists by expanding airports in Luxor, Alexandria, Cairo and Sinai. Furthermore, the Egyptian government has opened tourism offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, and New York in the U.S. and Stockholm, Madrid, and Vienna in Europe.

Over the past sixteen years the Egyptian government has carried out giant projects to serve the tourism industry, some of them are the following:

Completion of the Omar Al—Khayyam Hotel on an area of about 21 acres in Arish and the annex of the Cairo Sheraton Hotel in Cairo.
Completing the construction of the Cairo International conference center.
The renovation and replacement of a considerable number of already existing hotels
The building of several tourist villages in collaboration with the private sector.
The launching of an active promotional media campaign for encouraging tourists to visit Egypt and the private sector to invest in the tourism industry.

Worldwide publicity is among the opera fans about Opera Aida, which celebrates the love story of an Egyptian conqueror and an Ethiopian girl. Opera Aida will be presented on six nights, from 12 to 17 October 1998. A 5,0000—seat theatre will be constructed in front of Queen Hatshepsut’s temple near Luxor. This event will mark the 128^th anniversary of Aida’s premier in Cairo and the 75^th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen. 30,000 visitors are expected along the six nights of the opera presentation. Egypt needs more events such opera Aida to attract international visitors.

Conclusion

In a country like Egypt, there are magnificent tourism sources to attract all kinds of tourists from around the world. Egypt’s history and civilization are marketing tools to draw more tourists to the country. Although the Egyptian Government is making a great effort to ensure the visitors to fulfill their expectation of life time trip to the land of the pharaohs, the cradle of civilization, but still a lot of more work need to be done for Egypt to get its fair market share from the international tourists.

Recommendations/suggestions

1) Encouraging and facilitating the foreign investment in the tourism sector in Egypt would be very fruitful. Given incentives and tax break will attract rich investors from around the world to invest in Egypt.

2) The private sector in the tourism industry in Egypt and abroad, which benefit the most, should contribute to the development of tourism facilities within the country. This will make the stay in Egypt is comfortable and enjoyable.

Bibliography/references

1. Brochures and travel materials about tourism in Egypt.

2. Information from the internet about the tourism in Egypt.

3. The countries of the world, the economist intelligence unit limited

1996, pages 40-42.

4. Egypt yearbook. State information services, 1997, pages 131-141.

5. Achievements for Egypt's future 1981/82-1995/96,state information service, page 45

6. The national project for the development of Sinai (1994-2017), state information service, page 48.

7. Egypt, facts and figures, state information service, page 24.