São Paulo – Egypt will have four companies attending the tourism fair World Travel Market Latin America (WTM), which will take place from March 29 to 31 in the city of São Paulo. The companies will be placed in the stand organized by the Egypt Tourism Authority with the purpose of increasing the number of Brazilians visiting the Arab country.
Excellent Tours and Exotic Tours and Travel, from Giza, and Gezira Tours and Watania Tours, from Cairo, will come to the fair. Besides the representatives from these companies, the director of the Egypt Tourism Authority for the United States, Canada and Latin America, Gawaher Ali, will come to São Paulo for the event.
The consul of Egypt’s Trade Office in São Paulo, Mohamed Elkhatib, said to ANBA that the North Africa country wants to attract more tourists and is betting in the increase of visitors from Brazil. “These companies will attend WTM because we wish to expand the flow of tourists to Egypt, which is important to our economy. To do this, we are counting on the Brazilians”, he said.
Currently, said Elkhatib, Egypt welcomes from 10,000 to 12,000 Brazilians per year. “We want to increase this number to hundreds of thousands and welcome the Brazilians that are interested in the religious and cultural touristic destinations”, he said. Between March 2014 and March 2015, Egypt registered an increase of 50% in the number of Brazilians that visited the country.
Last year, however, the tourism industry in Egypt posted worst results than 2014. On October 31, 2015, a bomb took down an Airbus from the Russian airline Metrojet right after takeoff at the Sinai Peninsula. All of the 217 passengers and seven crew members on board were killed. The terrorist attack was claimed by the Islamic State.
According to data from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism, last year, 9.3 million people visited the Arab country, a decline of 6% in comparison to 2014. The country expects to get back to the 2010 levels, when 14.7 million foreigners visited, generating USD 12.5 billion in revenues. In 2015, the sector’s revenues stood at USD 6.1 billion.
The WTM fair will also host the tourism promotion branch of the Abu Dhabi government, the airlines Emirates Airline, from Dubai, and Royal Air Maroc, from Morocco, and also tourism agencies from Dubai. The exhibition focuses on tourism operators. The organization expects to surpass the volume of business of the 2015 edition, which reached USD 363 million.
WTM Latin America
March 29 and 30, from noon to 8 PM. On March 31, from noon to 6 PM.
Expo Center Norte, Rua José Bernardo Pinto, 333, Vila Guilherme, São Paulo – SP
Stand of the Egypt Tourism Authority – R70
Information: http://www.wtmlatinamerica.com/
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
