Slovakian media team to visit Egypt to promote for Egyptian tourism

A Slovakian media delegation will embark on a six-day tour of Cairo and Red Sea touristic sites. The Egyptian embassy here organizes for the tour in tandem with the Egyptian Tourism ministry within the framework of the Foreign Ministry's intensive efforts to promote for Egyptian tourism. Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Za'zou will receive the delegation to post it on the conditions in Egypt. Earlier in the day, Za'zou said he expects tourism to improve in November since several countries have already began lifting their travel ban to Egypt after security conditions have become better. Addressing the opening session of a five-day conference of the Association of Travel Journalists (FIJET), he noted that the Russian ambassador in Cairo has told him that Russia decided to lift its travel ban on all parts of Egypt as of today, adding that several countries have already lifted their travel warnings against the Upper Egypt governorates of Luxor and Aswan. Tourism suffered a sharp drop in September and October that reached 55 percent due to negative incidents carried out by the Moslem Brotherhood elements in streets, he said. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a report out Wednesday that the number of tourists who visited Egypt during September 2013 thudded down by 69 percent to stand at 201,000 tourists against 994,000 tourists in the same month in 2012. CAPMAS noted that the number of Arab tourists who came to Egypt hurtled down to stand at 99,000 tourists against 240,000 in September 2012. He noted that the ministry has a short-term plan for activating tourism, noting that the ministry and the Egyptian Tourism Authority (ETA) cooperated with travel agents and manipulated the internet and social networking services to promote for Egyptian tourist hubs. He added that the ministry will also launch in the coming period a campaign entitled "Thanks" to activate Arab tourism in Egypt. The campaign is meant to express appreciation to Gulf states which backed Egypt in such sensitive stage. Within this context, Minister of Civil Aviation said EgyptAir offered sharp discounts for airliners that reached 75 percent on take-off and landing fees.