"Issa" He chairs the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Tourism and Antiquities Support Fund

Ahmed Issa, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, chaired the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Tourism and Antiquities Support Fund.

The Minister began the meeting by welcoming Dr. Engineer Mustafa Mounir, the President The new Executive Director of the General Authority for Tourism Development, and Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, in their first participation in the Board of Directors meeting, wishing them success.

During the meeting, Reviewing and discussing the results of the rapid measures taken by the Ministry during the last period as a result of the current events taking place in the international arena, which had a very positive impact on the tourism industry in Egypt and contributed to maintaining the tourist movement arriving there, including its continuous communication with professional partners from International tour operators and local and international airlines to reassure them and motivate them to continue inbound traffic.

The members of the Council were also informed that the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion has increased the allocations for each of the joint campaigns with partners. The profession of tour operators and airlines, as well as the aviation incentives provided by the Ministry to maintain movement and airline seats coming to Egypt, in addition to the additional incentive package Booster Campaign that the Ministry provided to airline companies within the framework of the program.

For his part, Mr. Ahmed Issa praised the efforts of the Ministry, the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion, the Tourism and Antiquities Support Fund, and their boards of directors in cooperation with the private tourism sector and civil work institutions representing the sector, from the Egyptian Federation of Tourism Chambers and the various tourism chambers, to maintain movement rates. Incoming tourism to Egypt and ensuring the continued display of the Egyptian tourism product in the countries exporting tourism to Egypt and the target countries, indicating that these efforts had good and noticeable positive effects on maintaining the movement.

He explained The decisions that were taken during the Board of Directors of the Authority and the Fund regarding the aviation incentive program and the additional incentive package contributed mainly to preserving the first component of the Egyptian tourism product, which is the airline seats coming to Egypt, given that most tourists come to Egypt by flight.

During the meeting, policies and mechanisms for stimulating aviation during the coming period were discussed in light of the implementation of the national tourism strategy in Egypt, and a presentation was given on the most prominent results achieved by the current aviation stimulating program during The period from November 2023 until February 2024, and comparing it to the same period during the year 2022/2023, which showed that there was a growth rate in the number of inbound airline seats to Egypt, as it increased in Marsa Alam by 27%, in Sharm El Sheikh by 15%, and in Hurghada by 14%.

The number of inbound flights to tourist destinations included in the program during the same period also witnessed a growth rate of 25% in Marsa Alam, 12% in Sharm El Sheikh, and 14% in Hurghada. The number of passengers witnessed a growth rate of 22% in Marsa Alam, 13% in Sharm El Sheikh, and 6% in Hurghada.

Within the framework of what was presented, it was The Board of Directors agreed to extend the current aviation incentive program offered by the Ministry until October 29, 2024, with some modifications to it, as it was scheduled to end at the end of this April.

The Council members were keen to thank the work team for the aviation incentive program at the Ministry and for the accurate and important data that was presented during the meeting.

The Minister confirmed that the months The upcoming period will witness the strengthening of further measures to raise the degree of governance, the level of performance efficiency, and public spending on promotion, activation, and motivation items and activities, indicating that procedures for actually activating the role and tasks of the “Internal Audit and Governance” committees will be completed. The Fund and the Authority, which ministerial decisions were issued to form last September.

During the meeting, the minutes of the session preceding the meeting were approved.