The Egypt Tourism Authority (ETA) has reported a marked increase in visitors from Saudi Arabia in January and February compared to the same period in 2015.
The 6 percent increase comes as the tourist board recently launched This is Egypt” (#thisisegypt), a regional campaign, to drive growth in the tourism sector from the Middle East in November along with other measures specifically implemented to encourage targeted growth.
Ahmed Ali Ismail, tourism counselor at the Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, commented: “We are extremely pleased to report the upturn in visitor numbers from our sister GCC countries. We have several strategies and incentives in place to grow the GCC market, including new visa regulations, which were brought in at the end of 2015, allowing all nationalities with a minimum six-month residency for GCC countries to gain a visa on arrival in Egypt.”
Along with a fresh advertising campaign, which was launched late last year, he added: “We’ve also been pleased to welcome Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman during his visit, to sign an agreement of cooperation between the two governments. We hope to continue to strengthen and build on the visitor numbers from the region and are working closely with travel operators and other stakeholders to explore all means of nurturing this growth.”
In January and February 2015, approximately 55,582 air travelers from the Kingdom entered Egypt and just 12 months later this figure is 59,000 showing the 6 percent increase.
Egypt will be attending one of Saudi Arabia’s premier travel conferences, the Riyadh Travel Fair 2016, from April 12-15, where tourism operators, hoteliers and members of the general public will meet with high-level tourism officials from Egypt to learn and discuss how the ETA is whole-heartedly encouraging Arab travelers to consider holidaying in the country.
Source: Arab News