Tourism is a basic pillar of comprehensive development and a main source of national income. Moreover, it con-tributes to forming balance of payments surplus and an in-crease in the state foreign currency receipts.

 

Egypt is exclusively distinguished worldwide for its mild weather all the year round. Egypt's coasts extend along both the Mediterranean with its summer resorts and the Red Sea with its rare aquatic life, including coral reefs. In addition, the River Nile flows from the extreme south of the country up to its north.

 

The Nile Valley abounds in a deep-rooted historical heritage and civilization dating back to more than seven thousand years. Furthermore, Egypt is virtually a melting-pot, for the greatest civilization over centuries, and the land, where the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Christian, and Islamic civilizations had prospered.

 

-  Investment uses of tourist sector for the year 2003/04 are estimated at LE 1974.5 million.

-   The number of tourists in 2002/03 rose to about 5.2 million tourists and is expected to reach 5.8 million tourists in 2003/04 with an increase of about 650,000 tourists.

-  The number of tourist nights reached 33 million nights in 2002/03, targeted to rise to 4 million nights in 2003/04.

-   Tourist revenues in 2002/03 are estimated at US Dollar 3422.8 million and are targeted to reach US Dollar 3850 million. It should be noted that tourist revenues represent about 25 percent of the total national foreign currency income.

 

 

Cultural monumental and historic tourism are considered the oldest and most salient types of tourism in Egypt as Egypt contains several Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic and Islamic monuments.

 

Major Pharaonic, Greek and Roman Archaeological Sites:

 

1-     Cairo and Giza: 

 

-  Al-Kaffara Dam

-  City of Oun

-  The Pyramids

-  Dahshour

 

 

-  Al-Sawari Pillar

-  Roman Theatre

-  Roman Baths

-  Ras as-Souda Temple

-  Koam al-Shuqafa Tomb

 

 

 

-  Temple of al-Karnak

-  Luxor Temple

-  Temple of Habu

-   Valley of Kings

-   Valley of Queens

-   Al-Madina Monastery

-   Luxor Mummification Museum.

 

 

-  Major and Minor Temples of Abu Simbel

-  island of Philae

-  Botanical Garden

 

 

-  Abydos

 

 

-  Dandara Temple

 

 

-  Tel el-Amarna

 

 

-  Midum archeological area

-   Al-Ashmounin city

-  Tuna al Gabal

 

 

- The grotto inscriptions

-  Inscriptions and monuments of Serabit al-Khadem

- Mount Moses

- Mount Serbal

-  Al-Mahmal Road

- Ra's Mohammed Reserve

-  Saint-Catherine

 

 

-  Lahoun and Hawarah pyramids

-  Senosert Obelisk

-  Town of Madhi

 

 

 

-  Temple of Hebes

-  Tombs of al-Bagawat

-  Al-Ghota Temple

-  Ar-Rayan Palace

-  Az-Zayan Temple

-  Ad-Dein Palace

 

 

-  Mut

-  Bashandi

-  Al-Muzawaqah Tombs

-  The Islamic and Pharaonic Villages of Balat

-  Deir al-Hagar Temple

-  The Islamic Village of al-Qasr

 

 

- The Temple of Jupiter (Amun)

- Al-Khazinah Temple

- The Mountain of the Dead

- The Temple of Predictions

 

 

It comprises 268 mineral and sulphuric water springs.

 

 

- The Roman Temple of Doush

 

 

- Abu Monkara and al-Farafra palaces.

 

Coptic Monuments:

 

1- Churches: 

 

- The Hanging Church

- Abu Serga

- Mar Guirgis

- Saint Mina

- Saint Barbara

- The Virgin Mary Tree at Zaytoun

- Saint Mark's Cathedral at al-Abbasiya

-  Saint Mar's Cathedral in Alexandria

 

2-     Monasteries:

 

-  Saint Antonious

-   Wadi an-Natroun in Western Desert

-   Anba Paula

-   Al-Moharraq

-   Anba Hedra

-   The White

-   Saint Catherine

-    Mar Mina al-Agaybi

 

Islamic Monuments:

 

1-     Mosques: 

 

-  Amr Ibn al-A's

-  Al-Hussein

-  Sayeda Zeinab

-  Imam al-Azhar

-  Sultan Hassan School and Mosque

-  Ahmad Ibn Touloun

-  Al-Hakim Bi Amr-Ellah

-  Muhammad Ali

-   Al-Rifa'ei

-   Annour

 

2-     The Islamic Citadels: 

 

-  Salah Eddin al-Ayyoubi (Saladin)

-  Muhammed Ali

-  Qaitbey, Alexandria

-  Al-Aqaba

-  Al Gondi

-  At Tour

-  Al-Arish

-  Newaiba'; Sinai

 

 

Represented in the following:

 

-  The Egyptian Museum

-  Islamic Art Museum

-  Al-Jawhara Palace

-  Al-Manyal Greek Palace

-  Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum

-  Fine Arts Museum

-   Muhammad Mahmoud Khalil Museum

-   The Coptic Museum

-   Mahmoud Saeed Museum, Alexandria

-   Naval Museum, Alexandria

-   Aswan Museum, Aswan

-   The Military Museum, al-Alamein, Marsa Matrouh

-   Nagui Museum

-   Railway Museum

-   Al-Mansourah Museum in the famous house of Ibn Luqman

-   Donshwai Museum

-   Postal Museum

-   Wax Museum

-   In addition, a mummification museum was newly opened in the Pharaonic Village.

 

Safari Tourism: 

 

Egypt possesses vast deserts and mountains which provide op-portunities of fun and adventures for safari tourists. This kind of tourism is available for tourists in Saint Catherine, Mount Moses, al-Dakhla and al-Kharja oases, al-Ein as-Sokhna, the area of the Red Sea in al-Qusair sector and south of Marsa-Alam sector. There, tourists enjoy watching wildlife, animals and migrant birds. Safari tourism is also available in mountains surrounding Sharm el-Sheikh where travel agencies provide tents and other equipment necessary for a simple Bedouin life. Thus, tourists can enjoy this kind of life which is a blend of both simple and tough life in a de-sert mountainous environment, in addition to Safaga City which is distinguished with mountain ranges and deserts.

 

Egypt is famous for its mineral and sulphuric springs, dry climate, sandy and clayey soil good for curing various diseases. In addition, some of its beaches and coastal waters have peculiar curative natural properties.

 

Egypt possesses a wide range of sulphuric and mineral springs with unique chemical composition that exceeds in its percentage any other sulphuric acid and mineral springs in the whole world. Moreover, these springs are rich in their clay which have therapeu respiratory, tic properties that can cure numerous bone, digestive system, respiratory, skin and other diseases.

 

Furthermore, it was proved that patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis can get cured by burying their bodies in the sand. Ac-cording to research results, the Red Sea water with its chemical composition and abundance of coral reefs cures from psoriasis. Tourist sites offering curative services in Egypt are numerous and are of historical fame such as: Helwan, Ein al-Seera, Hurghada, Fayyoum, Oases, Aswan, Sinai and finally Safaga or the Red Sea coast which possesses all the factors of therapeutic tourism and at-tracts large numbers of tourists.

 

Safaga is famous for its black sands that have an extraordinary effect in curing skin diseases.

 

 

Conference and exhibition tourism represents a significant type of tourism that involves high tourism revenues and provides a great opportunity to highlight the Egyptian tourist objective through every international existence. Cairo International Conference Center is a major illustrious façade for such type of tourism as the center is well equipped with the state-of-the-art technical facilities.

 

Recently, Egypt has hosted the first international bourse of tour-ism named Mediterranean Bourse. Due to the great demand for international conferences and exhiConfer-ence bitions, 12,000 m2 were added to the Cairo International Conference Centre.

 

Sports Tourism: 

 

Sports tourism is one of the most important means of tourist promotion, thus adding fun and entertainment to tourists. Sports are now a principal source of tourist attraction. The most important sporting tourist sites are: al-Gezira horse riding club, Golf club, Shooting club and Sporting clubs on the Red Sea. Moreover, a club for water sports was inaugurated in Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.

 

 

This is a new kind of tourism. The Ministry of Tourism seeks to promote it as a means of diversifying tourist product and adding new elements of attraction to meet every tourist demand. Besides, golfing tourist product addresses a special category of tourists of markedly high level of spending. Egypt offers golf hobbyists a chance to practice their favourite sport at high-level courses located in unique tourist areas as Luxor, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.

 

 

Egypt has outstanding beaches extending along both the Mediter-ranean and the Red Sea for about 3,000 km. The Red Sea is charac-terized by its clear water, colourful coral reefs, rare fishes and dif-ferent series of mountains extending along the sea side with only an even land separating between them and the sea suitable for camp-ing. Also, al-Aqaba bay has many facilities for practicing water sports. Here, Safaga comes on top of Red Sea area to be the tourist capital of beaches due to its perfect site on the Suez Gulf, besides its magnificent beaches that extend to about 40 km.

 

In addition, its fine weather enables it to host guests throughout 9 months of the year.

 

The Northern Coast: 

 

It abounds in numerous new tourist villages along its coast.

 

 

The Mediterranean Mermaid, it is characterized by natural bays and an extended coast running from east to west over 70 km in ad-dition to a wide range of sandy beaches. It is number one summer resort in Egypt.

 

 

This is a new source of national income. Environmental tourism sites include nature reserves of Ra's Mohammad, Saint Katherine, Naqab in South Sinai.

 

Environment in Safaga is distinguished by special elements of attraction exceeding the limits of natural scenery, combining sea, mountain and desert.

 

It is planned to convert the aquatic life of the Red Sea with its coast extending to more than 1,000 km into a huge natural reserve which will be the second largest environmental water reserve in the world.

 

 

Festivals are a major source of tourism and media attraction, yielding considerable economic returns to organizing countries. Egypt organized numerous festivals that attracted a broad audience such as the following:

 

-  Cairo International Song Festival

-  Cinema Festival

-  Tourism and Shopping Festival, including Gold Festival.