Optimization of Tourism Development in Egypt by Examining the Tourism Development Experience in UAE

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Tourism Studies - Faculty of Tourism and Hotels - Alexandria University

Abstract

The tourism sector in Egypt has become one of the increasingly important sectors within the economy, as it contributes about 35% to the gross domestic product and 12.6% to the volume of employment. In the recent period, Egypt has made remarkable progress in the field of tourism development, as the total number of tourists in 2006/07 reached 9.79 million. The United Arab Emirates has achieved tremendous advances in the field of tourism development and managed, in a limited period, to have a distinguished position on the map of international tourism. Although Egypt has a tremendous amount of tourist attractions compared to the United Arab Emirates, the first tourism competitiveness index issued in March 2007 placed Egypt in the 58th position globally among 124 countries while the United Arab Emirates was ahead of it in the ranking in relation to the competitiveness index, where the UAE ranked No. 18. As both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates share many circumstances, as both are an Arab country located in the Middle East region, Islam is the official religion of both countries as they converge to some degree in culture. Therefore, the United Arab Emirates represents a successful model for tourism development that deserves analysis and evaluation to benefit from it. This study aims to maximize tourism development in Egypt by presenting the experience of tourism development in Dubai and analyzing each of the factors affecting tourism development in it: as components of tourist attraction, ways to reach it from various points of export, facilities and types of services available, tourism activation, stability and tourism policy To the state. It also reviews the obstacles and challenges that correspond to tourism development in both countries. This analysis is useful for evaluating this experience and examining its weaknesses and strengths, and thus focusing on the obstacles that correspond to tourism development in Egypt. The research also analyzes the opportunities and challenges of SWOT Analysis for each of the two countries' tourism development. The research reached the necessity of effective tourism marketing and adequate allocations for research and marketing studies, as well as stressing the importance of the timing of activation campaigns. This is in addition to the necessity of developing the human element through economic and social development in general, with a focus on education and training. On the other hand, the development of public facilities, infrastructure, and some services, such as transportation, is considered one of the most important challenges to tourism development in Egypt and this requires huge financial credits, which calls for the need to continue encouraging the state to invest in these areas.

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