The meeting was held in the National Police Museum at the Citadel of Salah El-Din, with the presence of more than 60 ambassadors and consuls, in addition to a range of tourism ministry leaders, according to a statement by the ministry.

El-Anani highlighted the importance of the ambassadors' role in increasing the number of tourists visiting Egypt and thus promoting the tourism sector in the country, in addition to their political roles.

The minister encouraged cooperation between the foreign ministry – represented by the overseas ambassadors – and the tourism and antiquities ministry, the statement added.

A new mechanism, El-Anani said, will be developed to keep Egyptian ambassadors around the world updated on all information related to tourism and antiquities.

He highlighted the role of cooperation between the foreign and tourism ministries across many important fields, including, for example, the recovery of Egyptian antiquities and work with UNESCO.

Minister Plenipotentiary Dalia Abdel-Fattah, general supervisor of the general department of international relations and agreements at tourism ministry, stressed the importance of conducting such meetings for enhancing effective communication between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This communication, said Abdel-Fattah in her speech during the event, comes in implementation of the media strategy for tourism promotion in Egypt that recommends communication with the government and private sectors in the host countries, as well as coordination between the two countries to extend the network of international agreements in the fields of recovering stolen and illegally smuggled Egyptian antiquities.

Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Diplomatic, Consular and Inspection Sector Ambassador Omar Amer delivered a speech representing the ambassadors and general consuls, in which he thanked the tourism and antiquities minister for holding such meeting.

Amer also hailed El-Anani for his interest in extending cooperation with the ambassadors and general consuls of Egypt as well as informing them of the most important pillars and basics of the media strategy for tourism promotion in Egypt, and listening to their opinions and suggestions in this regard.

Egypt is currently stepping up effort to restore normalcy in the tourism sector, one of Egypt's main hard currency earners.

A total of 3.4 million tourists visited Egypt in 2020, according to previous remarks by the minister.

Egypt received 13 million tourists in 2019. Before the outbreak, the country was expecting to receive 15 million tourists in 2020.

In May, El-Enany expected the tourism sector in the country to recover by mid-2022, saying current tourist revenues represent 43 percent of revenues gained before the spread of the coronavirus.