23 Aug 2012
The Egyptian State Tourist Office is delighted to welcome the appointment of Mohamed Hisham Abbas Zaazou as the new Minister of Tourism for Egypt. Mr Zaazou joins the cabinet having served as the first assistant to Egypt's former Minister of Tourism, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, since 2008.
Mr Zaazou brings over three decades of experience within both the private and public tourism sectors to the role, including; the Egyptian Tourism Federation, The Egyptian Tourist Authority, The Tourism Development Authority and the Arab Tourism Organisation. He is also a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
After graduating from the Harvard Kennedy School of Business with a post graduate certificate in Public Private Partnerships, Mr Zaazou began his career at R&H Tourism Co. in North America in 1980 where he expanded their operations to Egypt. In 1995, he moved on to Sakkara Travel as General Manager. Mr Zaazou's interest in the public sector grew when he was appointed the General Director of the Egyptian Tourism Federation in 2004 before starting his role as the first assistant to the Minister of Tourism for Egypt in 2008.
Omayma El Husseini, UK Director of the Egyptian State Tourist Office comments:
"Mr Mohamed Hisham Abbas Zaazou is bringing a wealth of international experience paired with a strong commitment to Egypt's Tourism sector to his new role. We are delighted about his appointment and are very much looking forward to working with him on developing Egypt's vibrant travel and tourism industry."
The tourism minister in Egypt is appointed by the prime minister without a set term. Mr Zaazou has already laid out three initial priorities upon taking office; Increase of the marketing and promotion activities of Egypt as a tourist destination, reorganisation of the tourism ministry's departments and increase the investment in Egypt's Tourism industry. Further plans include the development of green, eco, desert and wellness tourism as well as the conservation of Egypt's national heritage.
Mr Zaazou's appointment as Minister of Tourism for Egypt comes at a time when the country is expecting a growing number of tourists from Great Britain, Brazil, India, China, Russia, South America, Vietnam and South Korea. The Minister has already projected that Egypt will be able to support 30 million tourists by 2017. In order to achieve this goal, Egypt will work on improving its infrastructure by increasing the capacity of airports and ports and building marinas along the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. A National Sustainable Tourism Plan (NSTP) has been designed to provide regulatory means to reach the sustainability objective.
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