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I
am Egypt, home to the world's most ancient sites
and famous monuments, including the Giza Pyramids,
the Great Sphinx, the Nile and Red Sea coral reefs,
and Sharm El Sheik resort, as well as the grand
Khan El Khalily market, I stand as one of the
African continent's top travel draws. Egypt to Host
ATA 34th Annual Congress, May 2009 Connecting
Destination AfricaUnder the above banner, ATA's
hallmark event will be attended by African tourism
ministe "ATA is looking
forward to engaging with the world's leading travel
specialists to bring the world to Africa," Bergman
said. "By combining Egypt's unique capacity to
achieve record numbers in tourist arrivals with
ATA's ability to bring diverse industry leaders
together to shape Africa's tourism agenda, this
meeting holds tremendous promise for change in the
industry and the global marketplace." Active in ATA since
1983ATA held its eighth congress in Cairo; its 16th
was held in 1991. Today, tourism is the largest
source of foreign currency revenue in Egypt and
authorities plan to welcome 16 million tourism
arrivals by 2014. " The Congress,
to be held at the Cairo International Conference
Center (CICC), will run for five days, engaging
participants in working discussions on a range of
topics, such as intra-African industry cooperation,
infrastructure development and investment
opportunities. Roundtables for ministers,
suppliers, travel agents and tour operators,
alongside special networking events, a marketplace
expo, and ATA Young Professionals events, will also
be held. For the first time, ATA will also organize
networking opportunities for Africans living in the
Diaspora as part of its new Africa Diaspora
Initiative. Host Country and
Pre Post ToursEgypt will organize a Host Country
Day for delegates, who will have the opportunity to
explore some of these tourism spots, as well as
many more. Pre and post-country tours will also be
offered. To prepare for the
event, ATA sent a delegation to Egypt in August for
a site inspection. The team met Hon. Zoheir
Garranah, Minister of Tourism, Mr. Amr El Ezabi,
Chairman of the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA),
as well as Mr. Riad Kabil, Secretary General of the
Egyptian Travel Agents Association, a 1,600-member
association. The ATA delegation
also met Captain Tawfik Assy, Chair of Egyptair
Holding Company, and Mr. Ashraf Osman, EGYPTAIR's
General Manager of Sales to introduce the
association and the congress. of the event. For
more information on Egypt, visit the Egyptian
Tourist Authority (ETA) website at
www.egypt.travel. Pharaohs Lure
Tourists From atop the Cairo
Tower, the mighty Nile appears to be overwhelmed by
the edging luxury hotels and towering apartment
buildings. Beyond, the city with its crowded
streets, literally infested with humanity, spreads
out to the horizon. In between the avenues with
their mass of darting autos, one sees a thousand
minarets of new and historic mosques, peppered with
a number of Coptic-Christian basilicas. Cairo a Mixture of
East-WestIt appears to be an inviting city to
explore - a mixture of eastern exoticism and
Western sophistication. Yet, this is not
what the millions of people traveling to Egypt want
to see. If one turns atop the Tower to the other
side, in the distance, a visitor glimpses the
outline of the Great Pyramids. Located on a desert
plateau on the western edge of the city, they are
the magnets that draw these tourists. It is as if
the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt are still caring for
their descendants. Of the millions of tourists who
travel to Egypt, the vast majority come to view the
monumental vestiges left by one of the greatest
civilizations the world has ever known. Europeans and North
Americans, traveling in groups, usually stop in
Cairo, the cultural capital of the Arab world, but
never in reality see Africa's largest city, milling
with some 15 million inhabitants. They spend one or
two days visiting the Egyptian Museum of
Antiquities and the Great Pyramids, then are
whisked southward to see the other eye-bulging
works of the ancient Egyptians around Luxor and
Aswan. Pyramids and Sphinx, World's Enduring
Monuments Perhaps the tour operators have a point
when they steer their herds toward these world
renowned monuments. Continued.By any standard, the
pyramids - the only one of the 'Seven Wonders of
the World' which still exist - are an Called the Giza
Pyramids to distinguish them from the other 108
pyramids in the country, they are approached by a
wide-straight road built in the 19th century by the
Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.
She came during the inauguration of the Suez Canal
and in order to see the pyramids, the empress
constructed this avenue called Al-Ahram - in Arabic
meaning 'the pyramids'. Giza Pyramids of
Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos In the early 1960s,
when I first visited the pyramids, this road was
mostly edged by desert. Today, it is one of Cairo's
major and longest streets and, on both sides, a
forest of buildings cover every inch of space to
the very edge of these venerable monuments.
Standing immutably majestic, the Giza Pyramids of
Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos, the most famous of
all the attractions in Egypt, have watched humans
come and go for untold centuries. The largest and
oldest of these is the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
erected about 2590 B.C. Its base covers 6 ha (13
ac) and it is estimated to contain 3 million
separate blocks of stones, averaging 2 1/2 tons
each. Once these pyramids
and others played a vital role in the lives of
Egypt's kings and peasants. Today, for many, they
are the trademark of lasting power, drawing, from
across the globe, tourists and those who dabble in
magic and the extraterrestrial. Watching haughtily
over the pyramids is the nearby famous Sphinx,
carved out of solid natural rock by Chephren the
son of Cheops, the builder of the second pyramid.
He had this huge statue sculptured from soft
limestone with a lion's body, and a god's face -
believed to be his own. For over 45 centuries, it
has defied time, witnessing all the morning suns
civilized man has seen. Carved in the midst of
temples, which are in the process of being
excavated, this half man half beast statue has
acquired, through the centuries, an air of mystery
and romance. The magnificence of the pyramids and
the Sphinx are superbly portrayed in the 'Sound and
Light' shows, presented nightly. After sunset
throughout the year, on different nights, in
Arabic, English, French and German, these shows,
the finest of their kind presented anywhere, draw
droves of tourists. They add much to the
appreciation of the Giza phaorononic monuments and
their history. Egyptian Museum
of Antiquities On the other hand,
more thrilling to many tourists is the Egyptian
Museum of Antiquities, housing some 100 thousand
exhibits. It contains a very rich store of remains
from the Ancient Egyptian civilizations, including
the 4000 piece treasure found in Tutankhamen's
tomb. Few museums in the world can even come close
to its impressive exhibits. This huge
classical-style museum was built in 1853 by Auguste
Mariette, the great pioneer archaeologist, but its
collection has only occupied the building since
1902. Days are needed to truly appreciate the
exhibits, not the half or one day tours allotted
most visitors. However, the museum
has long become too small for its ever-increasing
collections and a modern and larger one is in the
works. Nevertheless, this too will likely be not
spacious enough after it is completed. The untold
thousands of pieces of one of the oldest and
grandest civilizations on earth can easily fill
half a dozen museums. After this
storehouse of priceless ancient treasures, one
becomes eager to explore the boundless pharaonic
monuments around Luxor and Aswan where, it is said,
half of the world's important ruins are to be
found. The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo
is the best door through which tourists can enter
into this heart of the pharaonic
history. More photos and
items to come. |
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The
Egyptian Tourism Ministry, in cooperation with the
Egyptian Tourist Authority, will host the Africa
Travel Association's 34th Annual Congress in Cairo,
May 17-22, 2009. A joint announcement was made by
Hon. Zoheir Garranah, Egyptian Tourism Minister,
and Edward Bergman, ATA Executive Directorat
"It is with great pride that we are now working
with ATA to welcome the world to Egypt for ATA's
Annual Congress," said Minister Garranah. "We look
forward to welcoming the world to our
country."
rs,
national tourism board directors, private sector
leaders, travel agents, tour operators, heads of
nongovernmental organizations, scholars, and
members of the media, who will discuss together
challenges related to global tourism promotion to
Africa.
We
anticipate that the 2009 Congress will not only
help Egypt reach its target, but it will also help
the country generate even more tourism growth
from the U.S. and Africa, as well as from Asia and
the Caribbean" said Bergman.
"Egypt
also stands as an example for other African
destinations to turn to, especially given that
foreign and Egyptian investments helped drive the
tourism boom by helping the government target coast
regions and build supportive tourism
infrastructure, including accommodation stock and
better airport services. In fact, ATA delegates
will arrive in Egypt's newly opened international
airport," said Bergman.
by Habeeb Salloum
unbelievable
accomplishment by ancient man. It is said that no
traveler who has viewed them for the first time,
has not gasped in awe, overwhelmed by their
majesty. With their guardian, the Sphinx, they
stand on a desert plateau some 15 km (9.3 mi) from
the heart of Cairo. Since the days of ancient
Greece and continuing to modern times, they have
been visited, written about, explored and, in this
century, have become a part of world
mythology.