30% rise expected by year-end, to total 15m visitors Untapped market of 272m people globally, says minister CAIRO: Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa hopes the promising rise in tourists this year will translate into a 30 percent increase by the year-end, bringing the total to 15 million. Issa said there was an increase of 34 percent in the number of tourists over the past two months compared to the same period last year. He made the remarks during a symposium organized by the Egyptian-Lebanese Businessmen Association titled “Tourism and Industry: Promising Opportunities for Economic Development.” Issa said the Egyptian government has developed a new national tourism strategy and hopes numbers will double to 30 million by 2028. More effective collaboration is being sought with the private sector and 3,000 operators in the industry that are aligned to five tourism chambers and the Egyptian Tourism Federation. Growth rates are projected at between 25 to 30 percent. Issa said there are three components for success by 2028: Doubling the capacity available to Egyptian Airlines; boosting services including protecting tourists from harassment and fraud; and improving the investment climate to triple the capacity of hotels and leisure activities. He said that Egypt has not tapped a huge market, estimated at 272 million tourists globally who want to enjoy the country’s products. Issa said there were positive signs of the country making headway to capture a greater portion of the market, citing the rise in last December’s figures. He said the government was focusing on 12 specific areas of the market, including the Pyramids Area Development Plan. Last week, Issa said 11.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2022. According to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the number of tourists visiting Egypt increased by 85.4 percent to 4.9 million in the first half of 2022, compared to 2.6 million over the same period in 2021. There were 8 million tourist from all countries in 2021, up from 3.7 million in 2020, representing a 117.5 percent rise.