Klaus Hildebrandtthe, Editor-in-Chief of FVW, a leading German travel trade magazine (Photo: Hildebrandtthe Twitter page)
"Egypt is a safe place, unlike how it is portrayed by the international media; I urge Germans to visit it," the editor-in-chief of prominent German magazine FVW said on Saturday.
At a workshop devoted to Germany's tourism market held in the Red Sea resort town of El-Gouna this weekend, Klaus Hildebrandt told Ahram Online that the global media tended to focus solely on recent protests and clashes in Egypt, even though the country's seaside tourist areas remained stable and secure.
Hildebrandt urged Egypt's tourism ministry to work on improving Egypt’s international image.
On Saturday, tourism minister Hisham Zazou stated that the number of German tourists travelling to Egypt had reached 500,000 this year, rising 33.6 per cent in the first half of 2012 compared to the first half of 2011.
Egyptian tourism was expected to suffer following an attack on the Egypt-Gaza border by unknown assailants that left 16 Egyptian border guards dead early last month. It was also feared that a recent bout of sectarian clashes in the village of Dahshur, Giza would negatively impact tourism arrival figures.
The number of Egypt-bound tourists in the first half of 2012 grew by 23 per cent to reach 5.08 million, according to data from Egypt's official statistical agency CAPMAS released last month.
National tourism revenue plunged 30 per cent to $9 billion in 2011, down from $12.5 billion the previous year.
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