The Egyptian villages of Siwa and Dahshur were recognized as the best rural tourist villages in 2023

The World Tourism Organization announced that the villages of Siwa in Matrouh Governorate and Dahshur in Giza Governorate in Egypt won among the best rural tourist villages for the year 2023 during the 25th meeting of the organization’s General Assembly, which is currently being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

These two villages were chosen due to their meeting the standards set by the organization in this context. The organization also announced that the village of St. Catherine in South Sinai Governorate was placed on the qualifying promotion list to become on the list of the best rural tourist villages in the future. These recognitions are expected to further boost Egypt's tourism sector in general, attracting visitors for Egypt Nile cruise tours and Egypt Shore excursions in particular.

The award shields for these two villages and the certificate for placing the village of St. Catherine on the promotion list were presented in the presence of Ambassador Amira Fahmy, Egyptian Ambassador to Uzbekistan; Engineer Ahmed Youssef, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Institutional Communication and the official spokesman for the Ministry; and Ambassador Khaled Tharwat, Advisor to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Relations. The shields and certificate were received by Engineer Adel Al-Jundi, Director General of the General Administration of Strategy at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

For her part, Ghada Shalaby, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Tourism Affairs, explained that the Ministry pays great attention to the rural tourism file and that choosing these villages among the best rural tourist villages is considered a culmination of the efforts made by the Ministry in this file to increase Egypt tours, noting that thus Egypt will be It was able to directly place two villages on the list of the best tourist rural villages, namely Dahshur and Siwa, and two villages on the promotion list, namely Fowa village in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate in 2021 and St. Catherine in South Sinai Governorate in 2023.

She added that there is a working team that prepared this file in coordination and cooperation between the Ministries of Tourism, Antiquities, and the Environment, where work was done to adopt the Egyptian requirements and standards for evaluating environmental hotels (Ecolodge), in addition to cooperation with the governorates and concerned authorities. She also thanked this team for their great effort to prepare for this file.

Engineer Adel El-Gendy stressed the importance of placing these villages on the platform created by the World Tourism Organization for the best rural tourist villages, which contributes to promoting Egypt travel packages in general and the rural tourism product in particular. United Nations organizations attach great importance to the relationship between tourism and the ability of tourism activity to provide job opportunities. And improving the economic and social level of citizens.

The Ministry took many measures that contributed to the victory of these two villages, as many development initiatives were launched in cooperation with international partners to qualify the village of Dahshur and its residents to practice rural Egypt day tours activity, as the Ministry’s efforts began to develop this rural tourist destination within the framework of the joint international project with the Tourism Organization. Global in 2013.

It rehabilitated the tourism infrastructure of Dahshur and implemented a training program to ensure the involvement of the local community in tourism activities, which included organizing several workshops on awareness of the importance of tourism to the national economy, the simplified English language for dealing with visitors during their Egypt luxury tours, how to manage solid waste, how to manage tourism activities and serve visitors, how to manage micro, small, and medium tourism projects, and the local rural tourism guidance program. According to the training program, the ministry was able to train 3,400 male and female trainees.

Also, with the help of the International Labor Organization (ILO), five local civil society institutions were established to practice tourism activities and a local economic development forum (LED Forum) to communicate with government agencies to provide for the needs of the local community for tourism development. The ministry also contributed to training local craftsmen in the creative industries of palm products. Which contributed to providing job opportunities for youth and women in the village, in addition to the Ministry preparing an environmental study to preserve the rural character and protect it from change as it is an important resource for one of the types of Egypt classic tours, which is rural tourism and bird watching.

As for Siwa Oasis, in cooperation between the Ministries of Tourism, Antiquities, and Environment, the Egyptian requirements and standards for evaluating environmental hotels (Ecolodge) were adopted, which is a procedure that will govern the development of the oasis and preserve visitors’ enjoyment of the tourism services they were promised during their Egypt group tours, which works to increase tourist confidence in the oasis.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, represented by the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion, also constantly highlights Siwa by holding promotional events and festivals, such as participating in the annual date festival held by Matrouh Governorate.

As for placing St. Catherine on the promotion list, it comes in light of the development the region is witnessing within the framework of the national project “The Great Transfiguration,” as it is an important destination for spiritual tourism and Egypt desert safari tours and an example of harmony and love between religions.

The Ministry has set the tourism development vision for this important destination and the types of tourism activities and expected hotel capacity in cooperation with other ministries and concerned authorities in preparation for Egypt Christmas tours and Egypt Easter tours during the next tourist season.

It is worth noting that the World Tourism Organization's Best Rural Tourist Villages Initiative, launched in 2021, selected 260 villages worldwide. Nine criteria were used to select the best villages: cultural and natural resource availability, tourism sector preservation, economic sustainability, governance, infrastructure, tourism services, and tourism safety, health, and safety standards.