The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) selected Egypt to be among successful 90 global experiences in the first edition of a report titled "Crisis Readiness: Are You Prepared and Risk Resilient to Safeguard Your People and Destinations?"
The session tackled the report and witnessed the exchange of views and experiences in confronting crises and overcoming them.
The report was prepared by WTTC in partnership with Global Rescue, a membership organization providing medical, security, evacuation, travel risk and crisis management services.
It mentioned that Egypt’s travel and tourism sector has demonstrated resilience, growing by 16.5% in 2018.
Tourism Minister Dr. Rania Al-Mashat partook as an official speaker in a discussion session and a press conference held by WTTC on the fringe of the 2019 World Travel Market (WTM) in London.
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Tourism Minister Talks about How Egypt's Tourism Sector Overcame Crises[/caption]
Al-Mashat said that the Egyptian tourism sector faced several crises at different levels and each time, the sector proved its great capability to recover quickly, stressing the importance of developing proactive plans to make the sector more resilient.
"The first step to remedy the repercussions of the crisis in any tourist destination is to manage the crisis well in a scientific way and improve the mental image to regain the tourists' trust," the minister noted.
"This could happen through calculated promotional campaigns showcasing the features of each destination to address various strata," she stated, citing the ministry's campaigns like PeopletoPeople and Branding by Destination.
During her speech, the minister pointed to the importance of training the human factor in the tourism sector and the launch of New Hospitality Criteria for the Egyptian hotels.
She talked about the positive outcomes which the sector achieved this year as its revenues recorded $12.6 billion in the 2018/2019 fiscal year, the highest in the history.
The report analyzed the impact of 90 crises between 2001 and 2018, at a national and city level; examining the time to recovery as well as lost arrivals and lost visitor spending.
WTTC President Gloria Guevara, CEO of Global Rescue Dan Richards, Director of the National Travel and Tourism Office at the U.S. Department of Commerce Isabel Hill, and Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Tourism Najib Balala attended the session.
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