At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CNN’s Becky Anderson and John Defterios spoke to Egypt’s Minister for Tourism Raina Al-Mashat.
During the discussion Al Mashat spoke of a range of issues from the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2020 to green tourism.
She also addressed concerns around the safety of tourists in Egypt saying “the government does everything it can to make sure your visit is one that is enjoyable and safe.”
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Key Quotes:
On the Grand Egyptian Museum:
“It’s going to open in 2020… On the inside you have all the monuments which are old and ancient but from the outside it looks very contemporary and that is the message we want to give to the world. We are a very old civilisation, but we do have modernity. We are thinking differently about our sector, we’re changing the narrative on tourism… For the first time, in terms of management, the government is stepping away from managing the sites.”
On green tourism:
“What we are trying to do is green tourism… we’re changing the norms of our evaluation in our hotels. In the new norms we’re going to include environmentally sensitive aspects. Just last week, one of the biggest hotels in Egypt moved to solar energy and that is to allow to resource to be used to the servicing of tourism rather than paying an energy bill.”
On the safety and security of tourists:
“The message is that the government does everything it can to make sure your visit is one that is enjoyable and safe. I feel that a lot of change is happening, people are experiencing it first hand through our brandings and promotions going forward.”
