Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Tourism, participates in a session titled “Enhancing Digital Leadership” (Photo courtesy of Egypt Tourism Ministry)
Egypt's Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat said that one of the priorities of the country's structural reform programme is using digital platforms and social networks to market Egyptian tourism and highlight the diversity of Egypt’s tourist attractions.
Minister Al-Mashat made the comments during a session titled 'Enhancing Digital Leadership' at the World Economic Forum Summit on the impacts of Sustainable Development, held from September 23 to 24 in New York.
The session focused on the importance of digital transformation, as well as the challenges and opportunities it entails.
At the summit, Minister Al-Mashat discussed the ministry’s efforts to keep up with technological advances and digital transformation, which is one of the main axes of the structural reform programme for the development of the tourism sector.
The ministry also said it wants to utilise the latest technologies and trends to promote Egypt as an environment friendly destination.
She also mentioned that Egypt has shown “outstanding performance” in many of tourism-related fields, and is ranked the first among African nations in promoting tourism, according to Bloom Consulting, the official partner of the World Economic Forum.
Al-Mashat stressed on Egypt’s belief in the importance of digital solutions and encouraging innovation, and this is why it hosted the first forum for technological innovation in the Middle East and held the first national competition for start-ups, in cooperation with the UNWTO, to support young people who have launched tourism projects.
Participants in the session praised the structural reform programme for creating a boom in the Egyptian tourism sector.
The session was moderated by Mekala Krishnan, co-founder of McKinsey Global Institute, and was attended by Mr. Derek O'Halloran, Head of Economy and Digital Society, World Economic Forum, Semon Segars, CEO of ARM, USA, Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor, Norway, and Nicola Acutt, Vice President, Sustainability Strategy in the office of the CTO at VMware.
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