Tourism Minister Khaled Ramy met on Sunday with Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, head of the Vatican-related pilgrim agency, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, considered to be the tourism ministry of the Holy See.
The meeting came on the sidelines of the official visit of the Vatican delegation, invited by the Ministry to visit the religious and cultural destinations in Egypt between 21-28 April.
Ramy said special security measures have been introduced on the visit sites, adding that the Egypt Tourism Authority organizes such events for official foreign delegations and travel writers in order to improve the image of Egypt abroad and show that it is secure for tourists.
He added that the government is fighting religious extremism in collaboration with Al-Azhar as well as ministries of religious endowments, information, culture, education and others.
“18 agencies applied to participate in the promotional campaign that will be launched in August,” he said.
Meanwhile, Andreatta highlighted the importance of Egypt to the ORP agency, indicating that it is interested in including Egypt within pilgrimage programs for the year 2015, especially given that their tourist programs did not include Egypt during the past two years.
Ancient Egyptian sites and places related to the journey of the Holy family should be included in the itineraries, he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
