AHMED EL KHADEM Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Authority

P.M. Communications: Egypt has traditionally been one of the favourite cultural tourism destinations for the British and it is a well known fact that tourists will generally not visit the same cultural destination more than once. Within your efforts to make Egypt more than just a one-time travel destination, please tell our readers about your strategy to capitalize on the year-round season and to promote leisure tourism?

Mr. El Khadem: It is one of the very important aspects of our work to make sure that we receive a high percentage of repeat visitors. Egypt has many qualities that make for an excellent choice for repeat visits. We have wide diversity in the country's attractions, meaning that: you could come once for cultural tourism and see the Pharaohs' tombs, the monuments and the museums; another time you could come for the Red Sea beaches and enjoy a leisure holiday in the sun; you could come for a third time and go for a fantastic oasis adventure or a diving experience. We have a multitude of reasons and attractions that make Egypt an excellent venue for repeat visits and that is why it has always been a part of our strategy to encourage repeat visitors.

As the number of British travellers coming to Egypt has grown exponentially over the last three years, UK tour operators themselves are now asking us to focus our efforts on repeat visits in all of our promotional activities. They want us to highlight the opportunities for repeat visits. Strategically, we believe that repeat visits could lead to the possibility of these travellers actually purchasing second-homes or other property in Egypt, serving as a very good gateway for residential tourism. In April of 2005, Egypt revamped the property ownership laws to extend identical rights and privileges to foreigners to those enjoyed by native Egyptians. It is so much easier now to own, buy, sell or rent property in Egypt regardless of a person's nationality. Ownership follows a freehold model with the only exception being in Sinai, where the ownership is based on a 99-year long lease system; there is a sort of special status and therefore property ownership is governed by some special regulations for everyone.

The new law has been a turning point that is broadening the range of choices that a UK second-home owner can look at when they are thinking about buying property abroad. Until now, the locations of choice for second-home ownership used to be in summer destinations. Very few, if any, were year-round destinations and Egypt (which has excellent weather and sunshine throughout the year) is offering this for the first time. Despite the fact that we have just begun to capitalize on this, it is phenomenal how many British citizens have already rushed in to buy properties in Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and Cairo.

Beyond second-home buyers, the new property law is attracting the attention of international developers, like Emaar and Kharafi. They did not work in Egypt before, but after the laws were changed, they now know that Egypt offers a great opportunity for them to be able to market their new properties to foreigners, as well as Egyptians. This is excellent proof that what we are doing is working and that the prospects for further growth are very positive.

P.M. Communications: What are the destinations that the British are traditionally interested in and what does Egypt uniquely offer to British would-be second-home buyers?

Mr. El Khadem: We did a rudimental study on second-home ownership and found that the prime attraction for the British is the sun and sea. Some British home buyers like to be in the proximity of cultural events. They like the city life, they like going to the opera, theatres, concerts, museums…etc. That is a very big advantage that we have in Egypt. Egypt is a big country but it is not enormous. You can get from Hurghada to Cairo in less than 1 hour by plane. Egypt represents an ideal type of place to buy a holiday home.

P.M. Communications: Could you tell us exactly what kind of clients you are targeting with your new integrated communications campaign?

Mr. El Khadem: The campaign is titled "Gift of the Sun" and it is targeting everyone who would like a bit of sunshine in their lives, which I assume is most people. Egypt has been very careful to diversify what it has to offer to travellers. For instance, we have something to offer family travellers, retired people who want to have some peace and quiet, those who are looking for an active city life or museum enthusiasts. Everything is really available and we have always tried to give every one of our destinations within Egypt a special identity. For instance, Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh are ideal for families travelling because they are offer something for all ages. If you are looking for peace and tranquillity, we promote Taba, which has a very serene nature and is becoming very popular for relaxation getaways. If you are looking for something really lively and active, you go to a place like Dahab, which is a bustling place with a lot of young people. Then of course there are the more traditional centres in the country like Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and the Nile cruises.

In the last couple of years we have been promoting Alexandria as an excellent venue for conferences and congresses. After the opening of the library in Alexandria and the adjacent conference centre, the city presents itself as an ideal venue for MICE business, especially in winter. European companies have very limited choices in winter when they are looking for a MICE destination. Alexandria, being a cosmopolitan city with many hotels, attractive facilities, 3-4 hours away from most European cities by air and two international airports is the perfect place for conference tourism.

P.M. Communications: I would like to give you the opportunity to send a message of reassurance to the British that might still be having second thoughts about a trip to Egypt because of some images they might have seen on TV.

Mr. El Khadem: I think the British are the most resilient of all nationalities when it comes to dealing with the issue of security for many reasons. First of all they have a different approach towards the entire security issue and this is inherent to the British culture itself, which I personally understand. People also realize that there is nowhere in the world that can claim to be 100% secure, even in England itself. Unfortunately violence can strike anywhere.

Egypt takes security very seriously for tourists and for its citizens. Systems are constantly being upgraded and new technologies are being incorporated into the security system to always stay ahead of any situation. Security audits are constantly conducted in different parts of the country to ensure that all systems are running properly. The European Union takes security audits of all countries in the world, including Egypt. Also, the major tour operators in Europe, including the UK, have their own security audits of certain hotels and tourist sites. These audits are all done by international professionals to make sure that systems are in place to keep their clients secure. One of the best indications that this is being done effectively is that the UK tour operators and regular air carriers are constantly adding to the number of tours and flights that they offer to Egypt.

P.M. Communications: The National Awareness Campaign that you have recently launched, which aims to educate the domestic population as to not only the importance of tourism within the Egyptian economy, but also to improve the overall service offered to international visitors. Can you explain in more detail the specifics of this 5-year campaign?

Mr. El Khadem: That is a program called the 'Tourism National Awareness Program'. One of the things that we have studied very carefully and found vital to the growth of repeat business is the education of the Egyptians. We need to educate people, especially the less affluent and underprivileged, about the importance of tourism and how it touches the lives of all Egyptians regardless of their profession. Upon consultation, we decided that the best way was to have a comprehensive program aimed at enhancing the level of awareness of the average Egyptian about the importance of having a good attitude towards tourists and tourism in general.

This domestic program was started last April and will last for 5 years. It includes addressing Egyptians across the board using a variety of media tools like TV and outdoor advertisements. It also includes a very important training component, which will train certain professional groups that are related to tourism on how to treat tourists and what attitudes they should adopt or drop. It is a very important industry for Egypt and we are making sure they recognize that.

P.M. Communications: The capacity of cultural tourism in Egypt is limited. What types of programs are in place to protect and preserve the heritage sites and to maintain them for all future generations to relish?

Mr. El Khadem: First of all, on the legislative level, we have laws and regulations that are very serious and very strict regarding the protection of our natural and man-made heritage. This includes our oases, coral reefs, shores, and even the river Nile itself is a protected area. Then there is Egypt's man-made heritage, which includes the temples, monuments, mosques and churches; even certain neighbourhoods are considered national heritage treasures. These are also protected by legislation against any kind of misuse or damage.

On the enforcement of the legislation protecting our heritage, we have a specialized police force called the Tourism and Antiquities Police. The mandate of this specialized police force is to protect our monuments and they are present at all historical monuments and sites.

The Ministry of Environment is in charge of protecting our natural environment and they are assisted by a special police force called the Environmental Police. They have rangers at all the sites who oversee that the heritage sites are left intact. The Ministry of Environment also works on improving the environment and not just preserving it. The Tourism and Antiquities Police do the same thing because they are also heavily involved in improving the condition of many of our natural man-made treasures. I will give you a simple example: our department of antiquities in the Ministry of Culture has restored parts of Old Cairo to their former glory, which was a fantastic endeavour. Of course some of these restoration works took long years, but it has been a worthwhile undertaking.

Some people might complain that we charge high entrance fees to our museums and temples, but actually every tourist coming to Egypt should know that the money they pay at these sites is actually going where it really belongs - to preserve and improve those places and monuments. We are very grateful for their contributions. Without their contributions, it would have been very hard for us to continue doing this good work.

P.M. Communications: Egypt was named the 'Best Undiscovered Golf Destination' for 2005. Can you expand upon what brought this prestigious award to Egypt?

Mr. El Khadem: Last year in Las Palmas, the IAGTO (International Association of Golf Tour Operators), who are in charge of global golf travel, decided to award this prestigious recognition to Egypt.

I would say that we are still at the beginning of our golf tourism life-cycle. In developing that aspect of tourism in Egypt, we have been very careful to do things correctly by learning from the lessons of other countries and other destinations. Although we only have about 20 golf courses right now, we take great care that they meet International standards. Also, we found that golf and spas go together and mix very well, because while the men are on the course, the ladies are in the spas. This is one of the things we have done in almost all of the golf developments. Therefore, if you go to certain places where you have good golf courses in Egypt, you will most likely find excellent spas as well.

P.M. Communications: Please tell us something about the high number of luxury hotels now found in many resorts all over Egypt, which offer very good value-for-money.

Mr. El Khadem: Egypt has a wealth of treasures, monuments, history and natural attractions, but there is another aspect that is attractive about Egypt, which is its 5-star luxury hotels (representing nearly every major International hotel chain) that offer very affordable rates when compared to other destinations. People are realizing that this is an excellent destination, which represents extraordinary value-for-money. Egypt has a competitive advantage of having lower operating costs, and the savings are passed on to the consumer. People will not go to a destination that is merely inexpensive if it does not also have all of the features they are looking for. But when the extra features are present and people see that they are getting great value for what they pay, then the number of tourists will increase and we will start seeing repeat visitors.

Beyond Egypt's wealth of cultural treasures, it also offers a unique and fantastic culinary experience. We have a variety of food venues that fit every budget and every taste. In the major cities like Cairo and Alexandria, we always have very interesting culinary and cultural events going on. If people log on to our new website: www.egypt.travel, they can find links to many different cultural institutions that organize periodic events, such as the Cairo Opera House, for example.

P.M. Communications: Could you inform us of the most recent tourism facts and figures from the British market for 2006?

Mr. El Khadem: Between January and the end of October 2006, we received over 850,000 tourists from the UK, which is a 37.7% increase over the same period of last year. I am personally confident that this year we are going to cross the 1 million-visitor mark from the UK market.

There is a very close race between the UK and Russia to be our number one source market for this year. We have to wait until the end of the year to see who will win. At the moment, the UK is leading.

P.M. Communications: Would you like to send any message to our readers?

Mr. El Khadem: I would send them all a telegraph saying, "Come to Egypt, for it is a great place".

P.M. Communications: Thank you very much.