Cairo - Mubasher: Tourism expert Mohamed Farouk, a member of the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers, said that Christmas and New Year's celebrations represent a golden opportunity to stimulate tourism, stressing that all hotels are making great efforts to provide a unique experience for tourists, especially since these events are not limited to being a festive season, but rather enhance the status of Egyptian cities as global tourist destinations and support the local economy.

Mohamed Farouk pointed out in statements he made today, Thursday, that the tourist occupancy rates in Egyptian hotels, especially in Cairo, are fully booked, and that the flight schedules registered in the various Egyptian international airports are recording unprecedented rates in international air traffic, from various parts of the world, led by the Germans, Russians, English, Eastern Europeans and Scandinavian countries, according to the Middle East News Agency.

A member of the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers explained that this year, the hotel occupancy rate increased by 20% compared to last year.

He pointed out that the New Year celebrations doubled the number of tourists in Alexandria, Marsa Matrouh, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Sharm El Sheikh and Aswan, especially since the weather conditions are excellent, as the occupancy rate in Luxor and Aswan reached 85%, in addition to other tourist and coastal cities that witness a turnout from domestic tourism.

Farouk pointed out the importance of the decisions taken by the Tourism Committee, with the participation of the government sector with all its departments and representatives of the private sector, noting that the participation of the leaders of these departments and the private sector and listening to investors in these meetings confirms the seriousness and speed of implementing these decisions in the tourism industry, and the participation of these departments confirms that tourism is the real engine of development for Egypt and any obstacles to its launch must be removed, to achieve a real boom in the local economy.

He pointed out that the Prime Minister's successive meetings with investors and businessmen, listening to their proposals and working on them, confirm beyond any doubt the government's determination to advance the tourism sector and achieve the state's goals and plan to reach 30 million tourists with revenues of 30 billion dollars.

The member of the Egyptian Federation of Tourism Chambers called for the rapid implementation of the decisions related to unifying the entities collecting fees from tourism projects, especially since all investors in the tourism sector have demanded the implementation of Law No. 8 for decades, with the designation of a single entity to deal with investors.