MAINTAINING the health safety of tourists continues as an area of priority for the government especially now that the global tourism traffic is picking up with Egypt having structurally and procedurally readied this industry’s infrastructure to achieve optimum functioning and also with Egypt enjoying a unique standing as a country of almost unparalleled acquisition of dazzling antiquities, fantastic beaches and superb all-season resorts.
Evidencing the profound keenness of the state on bolstering the health safety of tourists has been the all-inclusive set of procedures and measures now in place to guard against the coronavirus pandemic. Foremost among these measures and procedures have been the effectuation of rules obliging each touristic installation or accommodation
to operate a clinic with an all-time available physician, in addition to observing such protective measures as social distancing and the vaccination of all staff and workers.
Egypt’s energetic policy to offer tourists the maximum possible extent of health safety was further asserted last week with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities launching of a tourist support service hotline which makes it possible for tourists to communicate directly with the government department concerned, get their queries answered and their proposals duly delivered. In itself, the service reflects the country’s confidence in the worthiness and effectiveness of the multi-faceted efforts that have been made over the past years to revive the tourism industry’s potentials, renew its infrastructure and bolster its operational capacity, in addition to the systematic action to raise the health safety standards in such a way that ensures efficient defence against coronavirus.
Announcing the launch of the hotline while speaking to a news conference at the Egyptian Embassy in Paris last week, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Dr Khaled al-Anani noted that simultaneously with operating this service, the ministry would send each tourist a welcome text message that lists phone numbers of emergency services. The twin services point indeed to the state’s confidence in the reliability and efficiency of the measures now fully in
place to ensure a comfortable, safe and enjoyable stay for tourists at places of accommodation and retreat as well as whilst on the go while moving between one attraction and another. As indicated above, these recent steps are by no means isolated or separate moves but rather come as part of the overall policy on tourism development which now involves, as Minister Anani told the meeting with news organisations and travel agencies in Paris, the forwarding of a new tourism product characterised by smoothly integrated components that together make up a distinctive product and deliver a fine experience for tourists.
Combining cultural and recreational tourism represents of the key features of the new tourism product Egypt is now forwarding, as Minister Anani indicated at the same presser, making special reference in this connection to the construction of an antiquities museum in Hurghada and another in Sharm el-Sheikh, both of which would be open for tourists to visit in the evenings after enjoying their daytime on the fabulous beaches. Another equally distinguishing feature of the new tourism product is ongoing planning of domestic flights to connect the tourist attraction cities along the River Nile Valley such as Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel with the iconic sea resort cities of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. The application of an effective system for health safety certainly augments ongoing efforts to transform the entire setting of Egypt’s tourism sector into a new product that befits the country’s rich tourism resources.
