Egypt's tourism ministry is in talks with representatives of the UK tourism sector to attract more Britons to Egypt amid a drop in visitors from Russia and Ukraine, two of Egyptian tourism’s most important demographics.
At an online meeting attended by Egypt’s ambassador to the UK along with some of the countries' top tourism officials, Ghada Shalaby, deputy tourism minister, gave a presentation on the various tourist destinations that Egypt has to offer.
In addition to highlighting Egypt’s progress over the past few years, she stressed the country’s readiness to receive more British tourists.
She added that Egypt has enacted the highest health and safety standards in its tourism sector, promising that tourists concerned over Covid-19 can rest easy.
She also outlined the ease with which British tourists can acquire a visa to enter Egypt, particularly after the digitisation of many of the government’s services in 2019.
Ms Shalaby said during the presentation that Egypt’s hosting of the coming UN Climate Change Conference (Cop27), which is set to take place in the Red Sea city of Sharm El Sheikh in November, is proof that it is prepared to handle more tourists.
Tourism is one of Egypt’s most vital industries, accounting for about 12 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, concerns in Egypt began to rise over what would happen to the tourism sector.
About 1.46 million Ukrainian tourists visited Egypt in 2021, a report from the Ukrainian State Agency for Tourism showed, but since the start of the war, tourism bookings from both Russia and Ukraine have dropped by about 30 per cent.
Egypt’s Red Sea had long been a favourite holiday destination among Russian tourists until a 2015 suspected terror attack downed a plane over the Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
After the incident, the Russian government halted all direct flights to Egypt for six years.
But flights to the Red Sea region resumed in July of last year following long negotiations between both sides regarding security in the area.
The return of Russian tourists was welcomed by many Red Sea tourism workers, some of whom told The National in July that the sector had suffered greatly due to their long absence.
They hoped that the Russians’ return would help them recover from a two-year dry spell brought on by Covid-19.
Before the pandemic, Egypt’s tourism ministry had begun changing its promotional strategies to include more active social media campaigns and the use of influencers to draw attention to the many destinations it has to offer.
Following Russia’s ban on flights to the Red Sea, the ministry worked with Russian influencers to increase demand.
This month, it began to focus on the UK audience through a collaboration with British influencers, a group of whom were recently given a tour of Egypt by the country’s tourism promotion authority in hopes that followers would be inspired to visit Egypt.
Tourism experts have said that Egypt will also seek to attract more Germans to make up for the absence of Russians and Ukrainians. Germans were Egypt’s top visitors in 2021, a tourism ministry statement reported.
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From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
