With a creative structural pattern of thoughts, Mr. Islam Mahrous proposes solutions to the critical problems facing the tourism sector in Egypt. The second part of his interview with The Middle East Observer reveals his commitment and dedication to think outside the box in order to revive such a vital sector of the Egyptian economy.
The tourism industry is an important -if not the most- sector of the Egyptian economy, in terms of high employment and foreign currency flows; the political instability, since January 2011, and the Russian plane crash in 2015 caused a reduction in tourism and negatively affected it.
In your opinion what are the needed measures that could be taken in order to revive this significant sector?
Indeed the tourism sector is a vital sector within the Egyptian economy. I would actually say that the tourism sector is related to three main perspectives. The first perspective is the economic perspective… In fact, tourism in Egypt is the main source of foreign currencies beside the Suez Canal. Furthermore, the tourism sector provides direct and indirect job opportunities. The direct job opportunities are, for instance, employees who work in hotel business and tourism companies; the indirect job opportunities are for carpenters, farmers, technicians, and this is because when you build a hotel, you are actually building a whole community that is interrelated with other sectors.
The second perspective is the social perspective, again, within the tourism sector you can build distinctive communities that can stand on their own; if we take Gouna in Hurghada as an example, we will find that it is an independent ‘closed’ community that has all facilities needed, it has hospitals, schools, factories, supermarkets and hotels; just like Suma bay.
The third perspective is an environmental one; if we examine closely the population’s geographical distribution in Egypt, we will find that 85 per cent of the Egyptian population is concentrated around the Delta and Nile Valley, while Egypt’s lands are spacious and untapped. This is actually a problem, because citizen’s concentration at certain areas creates environmental problems. If we examine the case of Alexandria for instance, in the 90s its population was around 5 or 6 million; now its population reached more than 10 million; while infrastructure is yet underdeveloped. This has actually caused scarce facilities and services, like transportation, wastes collection, and road construction, this unmanaged concentration raises pollution levels.
I would say, we must use all the available resources that we have; we also need to concentrate on building more communities off the Nile valley and Delta, in order to expand more efficiently and create more job opportunities for the mismanaged youth. We need to duplicate the successful experience of Gouna, as a distinctive community that stands on its own. We can start to build more developed communities, for instance, in Farafa, Dakla and Kharga oases.
More communities mean that the government will work on constructing new roads, infrastructures, sewage systems and other services. This will actually help build a country that enjoys more resources in a balanced way. So if we work more on reviving all the above mentioned factors, we will witness a notable development within the tourism sector in Egypt.
In your opinion, do you think that attracting more tourists from the Arab Gulf, can be a temporally solution for the lack of foreign tourists Egypt is facing?
I cannot totally depend, on only receiving tourists from the Arab Gulf area; each segment of tourists has got a distinctive taste and preferences during their visits to Egypt. For instance, almost all the Red sea area depends on European tourists arriving from places like Russia and Germany, while Arab tourists, prefer Cairo and Alexandria. So, I cannot say, that in order to recover, we should solely depend on Arab tourists from the Gulf; instead, we need tourists from all over the world.
Do you think that tourism sector in Egypt is lacking well planned promotion campaigns that can accommodate for various tourists’ tastes and preferences?
We are definitely lacking well planned promotion campaigns, but this is not the whole problem. We are actually projecting negative campaigns to the world about Egypt. We do have a security problem in Egypt -presented in terrorism- however, I cannot constantly magnify all the terrorist acts that happen in Egypt and project it to the whole world; tourists will definitely be discouraged to visit Egypt. We have actually faced, similar problems in the past. I would say that media in Egypt, tends to magnify events in a very negative way. Terrorist acts, are taking place, all around the world, not only in Egypt. Negative propaganda is a main tool of the Egyptian media, and we must be very careful; by this negative propaganda we will actually discourage not only tourists, but investors as well, which will negatively affect the economy.
We must first, stop this negative propaganda and then start well planned promotion campaigns. We need the Egyptian media to work on building more trust internally and externally. I need media that can abide by the international standards.
In your opinion, do you think that the government should invest more in order to revive the tourism sector in Egypt beside the promotion campaigns?
Of course, there is for sure a specific budget allocated for the tourism sector in Egypt; however there must be what is called a “marketing budget” that must be allocated in order to work on more promotion campaigns. I would also say that social media is playing a vital role these days, so we must invest more in social media campaigns.
What do you think of the recent campaign of #ThisIsEgytpt?
In order to have a full vision about the tourism sector in Egypt there must be a full plan. We start by a vision, followed by a planned strategy, followed by tactics, short term and long term within a timeline frame.
#ThisIsEgypt is a good tactic, however we must have a planned strategy in order to identify the following steps.
Trained personnel is an essential part of any successful business, in your opinion what can be done in order to have the needed trained labour force capable of working at the tourism sector and professionally deal with tourists?
Before talking about the needed training, there must be a good education system to start with. In my opinion the education system in Egypt is out- dated. Many elements must be incorporated within the educational system, one of which is the good manners and knowing how to accept the differences between human beings. This will prepare Egyptians to be more open and accept different cultures, which can make them deal in a better way with foreigners within the tourism sector. If this is fulfilled, we will not hear about all the harassment that takes place with tourists when they visit Egypt. The reason behind harassment is the rigid mentalities that many Egyptians have.
In my opinion, the key is to be more open to various cultures through our education system; through education, we will learn how to accept other cultures without being influenced by it.
