For the past years, the Egyptian authorities made great efforts to improve the tourism in the country and provide the best services for the tourists in order to return in the Egyptian lands.
From enhancing the touristic places and raising the quality of its touristic services to promoting the Egyptian touristic sites all over the world, the governmental authorities along with the private stakeholders involved in the tourism industry joined forces together and Egypt has made important steps in all tourism’s sectors to boost the tourism in its ancient lands.
7 Days, 8 Ports, 5 Countries, 3 Continents and a fantastic journey back in time
One important achievement comes in cruising tourism (where Alexandria Port Authority has made significant efforts to increase the cruise calling to the Egyptian ports) with the returning of Celestyal Cruise chart to Egypt after 3 years of absence. On December 4, 2019, the ship Celestyal Cristal arrived from Greece to Alexandria Port carrying 733 tourists and 401 crew members working on the ship.
The returning of Celestyal ship to Egypt was saluted by local authorities and the tourists were welcomed back to Alexandria by the Governor of Alexandria city, the Chairman of Alexandria Port Authority, the CEO of Rhapsody Agency and several representatives of Alexandria Port who cooperated and worked together to raise up the cruising in Egypt.
The ship Celestyal Crystal will visit weekly both Port Alexandria and Port Said between December 2019-January 2020 during the Christmas holidays through Rhapsody Agency and is expected to resume its itinerary in March 2020. The vessel’s max passenger capacity is between 1200 to 1452 tourists with a cargo capacity of 25,611 tons.
‘Our 2019 and 2020 itineraries add seven new ports of call to our eastern Mediterranean product and bring us closer to our objective of sailing year-round in our home waters,’ CEO of Celestial Cruises Kerry Anastassiadis said. ‘We are thrilled to be returning to Egypt. Our passengers can now visit the Holy Land and the Pyramids, in addition to calling at our spectacular Aegean destinations.’
After the docking of Celestyal ship in Alexandria Port and the welcoming of the tourists, a meeting was held on board the vessel in the presence of the Chairman of Alexandria Port Authority and the port officials, Mr. George Kompnas – Chairman of the Board of Directors of Celestyal Cruises and the officials of the Rhapsody Agency in order to discuss several measures which will be taken to enhance the cruise calling of the vessels in the Egyptian Ports.
The Chairman of Alexandria Port Authority mentioned that implementing the directives of the Ministry of Transport regarding the facilities for the cruise ships but not limited to, Alexandria Port is taking the necessary steps to support the cruise tourism in Egypt through a lot of renovations in all its sectors from Customer service to Port Services and Infrastructure.
He also assured that the cooperation between Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and a number of European countries will strength, support and increase the maritime tourism in the region.
Celestyal has been one of the cruise lines which put back on its itineraries the Egyptian Ports (beside several European countries announced the returning of their tourists to Egypt, lately England and Bulgaria), calling at Alexandria and Port Said and this is being seen as a huge vote of confidence for the region regarding the safety of the tourists, with Egypt ranked in Gallup Report “Global Law and Order 2019 Annual Report” as the world’s 8th and regions 2nd safest country.
