SINGAPORE: Egypt is mulling establishing a full-fledged tourism promotion office either in Malaysia or Singapore.
Both venues, according to the Egyptian delegation currently in Singapore to participate in ITB Asia 2010, Asia’s biggest tourism event, are in the race for selection as the venue for such an office in the future.
“It’s turning out to be a close contest between the two,” an Egyptian official said.
Egypt, which has traditionally relied on Europe and North America as the main sources of its Western tourism traffic, is now turning to the growth markets of Asia whose nationals are experiencing a phase of strong economic growth and prosperity, and have money to spend on expensive foreign tours.
After wooing tourists from India and China, where Egypt is strongly represented by tourism offices, it is now concentrating on the Asean region with Malaysia and Singapore being important sources of tourism traffic.
In an interview with Bernama at the Pan-Pacific Hotel in Singapore, where Egypt last night organised a workshop and a colourful entertainment show, Egypt’s First Assistant Minister for Tourism Hisham Zaazou said, “We have 17 tourism offices worldwide, including one each in India and China.
“We are now thinking of setting up a full-fledged office in Malaysia or Singapore once we see growth taking place from either country.
“The Asean region is amongst the most dynamic tourism markets for Egypt and we are always looking for opportunities to attract more tourists to our extraordinary tourism sights which we veritably feel are our tourism jewels.
“Egypt is a great tourism destination with an eclectic mix of art and culture.” Zaazou said his ministry was keen to get Bollywood filmmakers to shoot in Egypt with its imposing, historic landmarks serving as the backdrop.
“We are also looking at getting Bollywood to stage its annual film awards night in Egypt.
“That would be a big boost to our tourism industry, particularly for traffic from India whose nationals have more spending power and are visiting long-haul destinations,” he said.
Prior to the Singapore presentation, an Egyptian tourism ministry delegation visited Kuala Lumpur where it staged a roadshow which involved the participation of over 75 leading companies from Malaysia’s tourism and travel trade.
Zaazou described the Kuala Lumpur roadshow as a ‘phenomenal meeting with our Malaysian friends’.
While Egypt will continue to draw a large part of its traffic from its traditional Western markets, it is also seeing keen interest from Asia’s emerging markets, notably India, China and Asean.
“Of course, our major markets lie in Europe. Russia is a big market for us.
“We have some two million Russian tourists visiting Egypt each year followed by Britain, Germany and Italy, each of which provides us with a million tourists.
“There are some 330,000 tourists visiting Egypt from the United States of America.
But Arab tourists provide about 17 per cent of our inbound tourists, with Saudi Arabia and Libya being the leading nations,” he said.
Egypt receives about 12.5 million foreign tourists from around the world.
“With the economic boom in Asia expected to continue in the coming years as well, we are now courting the Asean nations, with Malaysia and Singapore currently in our focus.
“We will be coming with more roadshows in the Asean region, including in Malaysia. Aside from cultural attractions, Egypt should be of particular interest to tourists from Malaysia and Singapore who love playing golf,” Zaazou said.
Juggling with figures, Zaazou highlighted the significance of tourism for the national economy of his country.
As is the case with Malaysia, the tourism sector has become an important pillar of Egypt’s economy.
“Some 20 per cent of each foreign dollar earned comes from tourism.
“Tourism’s contribution used to be some US$300 million in 1982 but by 2009, it has surged to US$12.5 billion.Indeed, tourism accounts for 11.1 per cent of our national GDP.
“Some 13 per cent of our national workforce is employed, directly or indirectly, by tourism,” he said.
Zaazou also observed what he described as ‘interesting vicissitudes’ in the behavioural pattern of Europeans, many of whom had become repeat tourists who were no longer coming just to see the Pyramids or the Sphinx but to participate in other activities such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) or to play golf.
“Golfing is a very popular attraction for foreign tourists, including Singaporeans, who admire the golf course setting with the Red Sea in the backdrop,” he said.
But there are also some security misapprehensions in some Western countries, particularly in the US, where people are concerned over incidents of violence in the Middle East.
Allaying such fears, Zaazou said Egypt was a ‘perfectly safe destination’.
“The safety of every tourist is of paramount interest to the Egyptian government,” he said.
Khaled El Bakly, Egypt’s ambassador in Singapore, echoed Zaazou’s views.
“Indeed, there have been no terrorist or violent incidents against any tourists since the isolated incident of 1989 when some tourists were, unfortunately, attacked,” he said. — Bernama