“The visit comes within the framework of Egypt's efforts in the Arab countries to achieve the goal of attracting 20 million tourists by 2020,” the head of the embassy’s information bureau Nabeel Bakr Amarah told Arab News.
Garanah will begin his four-day visit to the Kingdom by heading to Makkah to perform Umrah. On Saturday he will start his official visit by meeting the Saudi Minister of Haj Dr. Fuad Al-Farsi in Jeddah.
On Sunday, Garanah will arrive in Riyadh where he will meet Prince Sultan bin Salman, the president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA).
On Monday evening, the Egyptian minister will join Riyadh Governor Prince Salman in opening the fifth session of Saudi Tourism at the Riyadh International Exhibition Center.
At the chambers of commerce in Jeddah and Riyadh, the delegation will meet Saudi businessmen, representatives of travel and tourism agencies and journalists to update them and discuss the latest developments, investments and opportunities in tourism in Egypt and ways of solving potential obstacles.
It is expected that talks between the Garanah and Saudi officials will focus on a wide range of tourist and pilgrim related issues.
These issues include cooperation and exchange of expertise in tourism development and the overpricing of services for tourists and pilgrims in both countries.
It is estimated that Saudi Arabia receives around 750,000 pilgrims from Egypt, while Egypt receives half a million tourists from the Kingdom all year round.
Talks are expected to focus on the impact of new hotel classifications adopted by the SCTA on the supply of accommodation for Egyptian pilgrims, as well as the possibility of increasing tourist and pilgrim quotas for the two countries’ national carriers in response to growing demand.
Garanah is also expected to push for reimbursements for Egyptian Umrah and Haj companies who lost money to their Saudi counterparts when pilgrims of a specified age were barred from coming to the Kingdom as a result of swine flu measures.
