JEDDAH, 17 May 2006 — An official Egyptian tourism delegation headed by the minister of tourism, Mohammed Zuhair Grana, visited the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) yesterday. They are in the Kingdom to promote investment opportunities in Egypt and tourism exchange activities between the two countries.
The 47-member delegation held a roundtable discussion with over a hundred Saudi businessmen and JCCI board members as well as members of the Haj and Umrah committee at the chamber. They discussed some of the obstacles and problems the businessmen face working in the tourism sector and investing in Egypt, ways for overcoming these obstacles and raising the standard of services.
“The main goal of the Egyptian tourism campaign is to remove the difficulties facing Saudi tourists in Egypt and the problems facing Egyptian pilgrims visiting the Kingdom,” said the minister.
He pointed out that he Egyptian Tourism Ministry with the cooperation of Saudi authorities stopped a number of Egyptian Umrah and Haj companies for a time and canceled the companies’ operations due to illegal activities.
Saudi Arabia still leads investment in Egyptian tourism sector. “Our plan is to attract $3 billion a year to the tourism sector in the next ten years,” the minister said.
There are already Saudi investment projects underway for over SR2 billion. The Egyptian government is conducting a study for the largest tourism project - the size of approximately Dubai - in the Middle East. It will be located on the north cost of the Mediterranean and cost over $155 billion.
The delegation visited Jeddah and Riyadh, one of nine visiting other important tourism countries. Grana said he had ideas to discuss with Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of Supreme Commission for Tourism. One was to establish a tourism training and education center that people working in the tourism sector would benefit from.
With the increasing number of Umrah visitors to Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah throughout the year especially from Egypt and the considerable number of Saudi tourists to Egypt, the two sides had much to discuss regarding regulations, shortfalls and opportunities.
The Saudi businessmen and officials concerned with Umrah visitors brought up the issue of the quality and service of Egyptian tourist companies and vessels. The minister assured them that there are now new strict regulations and that there should be coordination between the two sides on implementing them and in noting shortfalls by either side from the beginning of the process rather than at the end.
As for tourism investment opportunities, Grana said that the ministry planned to increase the number of tourists by one million annually and that there are plenty of tourism projects that can be established especially entertainment and shopping projects the new trend in tourism and which is needed in Egypt.
“The Supreme Commission for Development owns land on almost all the Egyptian sea coasts; they can be sold for tourism development projects,” he said. There are also projects in transportation, port development and vessels. Another trend in Egypt is private property ownership, which has been on the rise that has reached a billion dollars a year, due to ease of processing permission.
Saudi businessman Abdulrahman Sharbatli commended efforts by the current tourism administration in easing regulations and creating an attractive investment environment but pointed to some problems that still hinder greater flow on investment. These problems are tourism support services, ability to hire foreign labor, regulations on advertisements, taxes and licenses. The minister promised to look into all these problems but there are rules that cannot be changed such as not allowing businesses to hire more than 10 percent foreign labor. Other businessmen brought up the issue of security concerns, bureaucracy and routine. The minister again assured that security is not an issue and recent terrorist events had only a minor effect on foreign tourists and the other problems are being tackled. As for concerns over bird flu, he said that the government is taking all the necessary precautions recommended by WHO and there is no reason for concern.
According to statistics, out of four million Saudi tourists last year, 361,000 of them went to Egypt, an increase of 16 percent from 2004.
A businessman mentioned the difference in the charges for taxis and other services between Saudis and other nationalities as a problem. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism has started a program called “city taxi” that has a set charge rate. The ministry has launched its largest tourism promotion campaign, which this trip is part of, which will continue for five years and with a budget of 100 million Egyptian pounds. There are 190,000 hotel rooms in Egypt and it expects to add 10,000 rooms annually.
