Published on : Friday, April 27, 2018
Sometime in 2019, the Grand Egyptian Museum, home to over 50,000 artefacts, is scheduled to open, more than seven years after work began.
The country’s tourism minister, Rania Al Mashat, says that she hopes the museum will reassert Egypt’s reputation as a cultural destination, after years of political turmoil and economic malaise.
Egypt topped for its sites of historical interest, but has suffered in recent years following a string of terror attacks specifically targeting foreign visitors.
Most recently, an explosive device brought down Russia’s Metrojet Flight 9268, flying from seaside resort Sharm Al Shaikh to St Petersburg, killing all 224 tourists and crew on board.
Shortly afterwards, British and Russian airlines cancelled all flights to the destination. The UK’s airlines have still not returned, while Russian charter flights began again this year.
Egyptian officials estimate the damage to the economy at around £10 billion in lost revenue.
But the Sinai region continues to struggle: In November 2017, gunmen attacked a Sufi mosque, killing 311 worshippers.
And yet Gulf developers continue to invest in the country, with Emaar in particular pouring billions of dirhams into Egypt.
The Dubai-based company has several ongoing hotel agreements across its portfolio of brands, in addition to the master plan development Marassi and an urban residential development in Cairo.
To aid this investment, Al Mashat said that she was pushing for legislative reviews, allowing the country to modernise and attract more tourism.
Al Mashat said that at the time many of the country’s tourism laws were drafted, the internet didn’t exist.
The minister refused to comment on the recent ban of ride-hailing apps Uber and Careem. Going forward, Al Mashat said she would focus on attracting new visitor markets.
Currently, over 50 per cent of the country’s tourists come from Europe, while a further 30 per cent come from the Gulf countries, and 10 per cent from Asia.