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Egypt woos Indian tourists
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PTI
New Delhi: After charming visitors from Europe and America, Egypt which is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, is seeking to pull in Indian tourists in droves.
“Egypt is a hot favourite among Europeans and Americans but somehow the number of Indians has always been a little low. So, we are now focussing at India as it has immense potential to boost our tourism sector," Samy Mahmoud, Tourism Counsellor, Egypt Tourism Authority (ETA) in India told PTI.
Why Egypt sees potential is also because since 2005 business and leisure visitors have increased from India.
“In 2005 we witnessed an inflow of 47,000 Indians, which in 2006 went up by another 10,000. Projects for 2007 stand at 65,000 which is a good number to win over, so that they can through word of mouth further popualarize Egypt.
Subsequently the monetary allocation to promote Egyptian tourism in India has also gone up. “We spend around $16 mn on advertisements and marketing promotions globally and for India we have budgeted around $500,000."
With 9mn tourists in 2007, it makes sense for Egypt to strengthen tourist inflow from markets like China and India in addition to traditional markets like France and Italy.
There are many destinations in Egypt that are still unexplored. Most associate just pyramids and Cairo, though there is more to explore. The Port of Alexandria and many new sites dating back to Jesus’ birth and his lineage would have special relevance for Christian travellers.
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