World Travel Summit |
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Port Ghalib - Egypt |
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 At the initiative of Emeco Travel www.emeco.travel, the leading DMC in Egypt, and in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and the InterContinental Hotels Group www.intercontinental.com, some 50 MICE organizers and press from Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom) North and South America (U.S.A., Argentina, Brazil), South-Africa and Russia were invited one month ago to Egypt on a multiple purpose trip.Firstly to evaluate the situation of the MICE industry in the various participating countries, and to learn how Egypt might benefit of the actual crisis, and secondly to showcase Port Ghalib, the new destination at the borders of the Red Sea. The InterContinental Hotels Group were the perfect hosts for the trip and participants were able to consecutively sample the service at the Semiramis Intercontinental in Caïro, the Intercontinental The Palace in Port Ghalib, and for some the trip ended with a stay at the Staybridge Suites in Caïro, the new “long-stay” brand of IHG (www.staybridge.com). |
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| The World Travel Summit During a three-hour session in the state-of-the-art Convention center at Port Ghalib, each country was asked to summarize the MICE situation in their country, and to give their opinion on Egypt as an actual and/or future MICE destination and what should be done to improve. What came out of this session can be summarized as follows:
There is a general downturn in the MICE business everywhere, and companies continuing to organize Meetings and Incentives will do it in a much more efficient and budget-minded way either by choosing destinations closer to home, or even by using Tour-operator packages. |
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How is Egypt perceived, and what can it do to improve? General consensus about Egypt being a good MICE destination, offering value for money, although reasons for planning trips there are different from the various countries.As Europeans go to Egypt for a mix of sun, fun and culture, overseas visitors from the Americas come mainly for the culture and their concern is about safety. Flight schedules should be revised to allow for shorter trips, with better connections, and hotels and DMC’s should be convinced to include refund-clauses in their contracts in case of problems of any kind. And obviously a well organized promotion campaign with media publications, famtrips and presstrips cannot but give Egypt a boost as a perfect MICE destination, well within reach for most countries, and at an acceptable budget. |
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| Port Ghalib | ||||||
These were the words of Nasser Al-Kharafi, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Al-Kharafi Group* upon presenting the project at the turn of the century. Set on Egypt’s Red Sea coast in a prime 48 square-kilometre strip of real estate between the desert and the waterfront, Port Ghalib (www.portghalib.com) is the very embodiment of a 21st Century mixed-use resort and business development.
When all phases of the masterplan will be completed it will be arranged around nine themed villages comprising 22 hotels with some 15,000 rooms, an international conference centre, a 1,500-yacht marina and deep-sea harbour, a competition-class 18-hole golf course, over 9,000 freehold villas and apartments, and 240,000 square-metres of commercial space for offices, shops, entertainment venues, and restaurants. The marina, which has been designed to hold some 1500 yachts, has been accorded international port status with full passport control. The deep-sea harbour license will add to this with industrial-strength freight handling facilities once the harbour itself is completed. And unique is the International Convention Centre at Port Ghalib (ICC) which is a shining example that the Middle East has become the hub of the world’s business. It’s the only multi-purpose, state-of-the-art centre of its size on the Red Sea. Positioned in the epicentre of Port Ghalib it is the ultimate mix between business and pleasure. Situated 5 minutes from Marsa Alam International Airport and spanning 6000m2, the ICC seats up to 1500 delegates. |
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| The other Highlights | ||||||
Visit Emeco Travel during Imex Emeco Travel is the Egyptian member of euromic - THE Destination Management Partnership in Europe and the Mediterranean. |
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| *The AL-KHARAFI or MAK Group (Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Karafi & Sons) is a private Kuwaiti based group with diverse interests and activities worldwide. Established as a trading company more than 100 years ago it has since developed into a large multi-national company. Following on from 1956 and with the advent of the construction boom in the Gulf, caused by the build-up of oil wealth in the region, Kharafi’s Construction Division quickly assumed a dominant role and expanded in response to the demands of a rapidly developing nation. Their activities include construction, manufacturing and commerce, and recently an interest in the travel industry has been added of which Port Ghalib is one of the results. With an annual turnover of over 4 Billion US$ the M.A. Kharafi Group operates in more than 25 countries around the world and has more than 100.000 employees. (www.makharafi.net) |
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Our vision is for a technologically-advanced and fully-interconnected smart city, rather than just an unimaginative tourist resort. The scale of our ambition is to bring huge social and economic benefits to the community and to Egypt as a whole.”
Port Ghalib is 200 kilometres south of Hurghada, 60 kilometres north of the Egyptian city of Marsa Alam, and just five kilometres from the recently built Marsa Alam International Airport (another AL-KHARAFI* investment already serving one million passengers a year - 2008 estimate). 
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