Egypt bets on cultural and sport tourism

The Gate Travel Expo, taking place from September 6 to 9 in Cairo, is expected to attract more than 10,000 visitors and 200 companies from at least 56 countries, the UAE daily The National quoted organisers as saying.

The purpose, they say, is to boost post-Covid-19 recovery and promote Egypt as a tourist destination.

"Egypt deserves to be on the world tourism map in a much bigger way," said Amr El Kady, chief executive of the government's Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board, at an event unveiling the show on Monday evening.

"It will put a spotlight on Egypt. At the same time, it is important to organise many different types of conferences in the country." The National reported that among the conferences offered will be the UN Cop27 climate change conference in Sharm El Sheikh in November.

"Tourism has started to recover globally with the easing of travel restrictions, now that 60 per cent of the world's population is vaccinated against Covid-19 and countries have largely adapted to living with the pandemic," the UAE daily noted. "Destinations welcomed almost three times as many international arrivals in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 2021, according to the UN World Trade Organisation." However, "international tourist arrivals were still 61 per cent below pre-pandemic 2019 levels over the same period." "A challenging economic environment coupled with the Russia-Ukraine war "pose a downside risk to the ongoing recovery of international tourism", the daily quoted the UNWTO as saying.