Greek Minister of Tourism Elena Kountoura and an accompanying delegation of 25 representatives of Greek travel agencies arrived in Cairo Monday on board an EgyptAir flight to participate in the Egyptian-Greek Tourism forum in Cairo, Youm7 reported.
Kountoura expressed her condolences to the Egyptian people for the death of the passengers and crew onboard the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean early Thursday. She added that this is her second visit to Egypt to enhance bilateral tourism relations to attract more tourists to both countries. Egypt and Greece are working together on providing joint tourism programs.
Late February, Kountoura visited Egypt where she met with former Egyptian Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou. They discussed a memorandum of understanding, per which the two countries will launch tourism investments that will create employment opportunities, in addition to collaborating and sharing expertise in the area of research, policy planning and monitoring.
Egypt’s tourism sector, which represents 11 percent of the country’s GDP, has been suffering from ongoing shocks ever since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Europe accounts for 72 percent of Egypt’s annual tourism to Egypt, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.
