Al-Masry Al-Youm has received a copy of the Tourism Minister Khaled Rami's decision to decrease the number of overseas tourism offices to 11.
The decision included shutting down the office in Poland, a country which was considered to be a promising alternative to the Russian market.
Sources within the Tourism Ministry said that the decision was made without a thorough study and it is likely to have a negative impact on tourism, particularly with regard to the closure of the office in Poland, which is the fifth largest market for Egypt.
According to the sources, the adverse effect is likely be strengthened, as it coincides with the recent ban on granting visas to foreigners at Egyptian airports and the ongoing war in Yemen.
The miniterial decision states that the office of New York will be responsible for promoting Egypt in the US, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, while China, Vietnam, South Korea and the Philippines will lie within the scope of the Beijing office. The Mumbai office promotes trips to Egypt in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, whereas the one situated in Abu Dhabi will be responsible for the GCC countries, Lebanon, and Jordan.
According to the decision, the Moscow office will promote Egypt in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania; the London office will be responsible for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland, while the Paris office will be centered on the French, Spanish and Portuguese markets. The Brussels office will oversee Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Turkey's office has been transfered to Rome, which is responsible for promoting Egypt in Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Also, a new office has been opened in Prague, to oversee Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia. At the same time, Poland office has been closed, and from now on Germany's office will supervise the promotional activities in Poland, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.
A source at the Ministry of Tourism said that the closure of Poland's office is particularly unfortunate in light of the ruble crisis, which has caused the amount of tourists from Russia to drop by 50 percent, and it continues to decline until now.
The source also criticized the expansion of areas of supervision of each office, saying it makes promoting tourism a very difficult task.
The source explained that the new decision, the closure of the office of Poland, and canceling visas to foreigners at airports will lower the amount of tourists arriving in Egypt as of mid-May. According to the Ministry, the decision is aimed at rationalizing expenditure.
Member of Egypt's Tourism and Travel Agencies Chamber (TTAC) Ehab Abdel Aal warned of the repercussions of the Yemeni crisis on the tourism sector in the region in general and on the Egyptian sector in particular, pointing out that a further decline is to be expected if Iran decides to undertake military action.
Edited translaton from Al-Masry Al-Youm
