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of the Information Center of the Council of Ministers and we ability to generate income for the state), or it either follows the
exchanged a few words. He told me that he was the advisor of Ministry of Culture, Antiquities or sometimes the Ministry of
the former prime minister and that now he works at the Aviation. In Egypt, it was significant to merge these ministries
Information Center of the Council of Ministers but will soon (Antiquities and Tourism) because Egypt has many monuments
be appointed as a consultant for the Ministry of Tourism for which we need to employ for tourism and international
information. Afterwards, he became the Governor of Luxor promotion. Egypt owns all the components for providing a
and currently he is Egypt's representative at FAO: Professor tourism product; a tourism product is something the state offers
Mohamed Badr. Then I came across Dr. Ola Al Khawaja, to the tourist and accordingly the tourist would have a pleasant
who informed me that Dr. Badr had told her that the Minister touristic experience. Egypt has safari, deserts, mountains,
of Tourism had been changed and that he needed an economic mountaineering activities, adventures; it also has beach tourism,
adviser, and so I was offered the job. Mr. Mohamed Badr archaeological, cultural, environmental, astronomical, and
contacted me to inform me of the job. Intially, I did not like folkloric tourism. Egyptian cuisine also enjoys its fair share of
working in the government, but I met with Mr. Zuhair Grana tourism. We even have sand-skiing. It is clear that Egypt has all
and he was very understanding and calm. At the same time, I the ingredients, in spite of the presence of all these components,
was nominated by Dr. Mahmoud Mohieddin to be on the Egypt cannot reach the number of tourists it deserves. Egypt,
Transport Committee for the Policy Secretariat of the despite its unique location, can only be accessed through
National Party. In fact, this is one of the jobs I am proud to aviation. Targeting tourists should be based not only on tourist
have worked on because we had done a great job in transport products, but also on providing services such as the capacity of
infrastructure as we had carried out feasibility studies for all flights to facilitate transportation and the speed of movement
the renovations and road changes and examined how within Egypt to save the tourist's time.
important they are to society and connecting places. By the Speaking of saving time, there is a number of tourist trips called
end of that year, I was working as a consultant, a member of 'one day trip'. Their number is not large but their spending is
the Transport Committee, and also an instructor at the faculty. very high, and so the tourist's spending on these trips is almost
The key was to organize time. I spent these years from 2006 four times the spending of the average tourist per day. Plus, it
to 2017 learning a lot from my work as a consultant, where I increases employment opportunities, thus counters terrorism.
witnessed six ministers with completely different As president of the Center for Economic and Financial
personalities, but each of them had something distinguishable. Studies, you have succeeded in deepening partnership ties
In your opinion, what challenges and opportunities does with the International Organization for Migration through
Egypt's tourism sector face today? establishing the Unit for Migration Studies — tell us about

For the tourism sector, I would like to note that there has been the beginning of this partnership. What have you achieved
a significant recovery, starting with the idea of integrating so far and what do you aspire to achieve in the future?
antiquities with tourism which marked a very important step, Of course, it was an honor to be president of the Financial
especially since Egypt is a country characterized by diverse Research and Economics Institute after the giants who
archaeological monuments. In most developed countries, previously held this position. It is why it was necessary to add
there is no Ministry of Tourism, but rather its juristictions new and different activity. At that time, the State Department
belong to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (because it is linked aimed to establish a center for immigration studies and research
to the outside world) or to the Ministry of Economy(due to its as the issue of immigration did not appeal to public universities,

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