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Egypt opens door to tourism cooperation with PH as Grand Egyptian Museum debuts
Egypt is open to collaborating with the Department of Tourism, private tourism groups, and educational institutions to explore ways to encourage more Filipinos to visit, coinciding with the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near the Giza pyramid complex in Giza, Egypt’s envoy in Manila said.
According to Ambassador Nader Nabil Zaki, Filipino tourist arrivals to Egypt fell sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic and amid regional tensions, but improving peace prospects provide “a good opportunity” for history-minded travelers to see not only the Pyramids of Giza but also the new museum, which Egypt’s president has described as “a new chapter in the history of the present and the future.”
“So we're inviting the Filipinos to come back,” Zaki said. “And we're trying to understand what they need and try to make it available for them. It's essential for us, Filipino tourists, either for history, for museums, for also beaches.”
He added, “I am I would like to see another exhibition here in the Philippines and I am so sad to say that the last exhibition was in 1975.”
The ambassador said Wednesday’s engagement is “the start of the cooperation,” adding: “I will be in contact, I'm trying to establish this relationship with the travel agencies here, to listen to them, to understand what's the different as I'm saying the Filipino tourist what's looking for and making connections between them and travel agencies in Egypt… so it has to go both ways you know also Egyptians I would like to encourage them to come here.”
As part of the briefing, the Egyptian Embassy showed tourism stakeholders a video tour of the Grand Egyptian Museum, highlighting its approximately 500,000-square-meter complex, a collection of around 100,000 artifacts, and views of the Giza pyramids.
Egypt officially opened the long-awaited GEM near the Giza Plateau this week after more than two decades of planning and construction. Billed as the world’s largest archaeological museum dedicated to a single civilization, it houses marquee antiquities, including the complete Tutankhamun collection and a colossal statue of Ramses II.
Zaki also referenced long-running efforts to return prominent Egyptian artifacts displayed abroad—citing the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum and the Dendera Zodiac at the Louvre framing the discussion as both legal and moral: “There is always a debate, legal and moral argument. You took it legally, is it moral to keep it?..So let's see… today we can say yes, now we are up to restoring all our treasures from abroad, and this is of course… negotiation and diplomacy is also exerting lots of efforts in this regard.”
The Rosetta Stone remains one of the British Museum’s most visited objects; the museum has stated that it has received no formal repatriation request from Egypt, despite high-profile campaigns continuing. The Dendera Zodiac is cataloged in the Louvre’s Egyptian collection. — BM, GMA Integrated News
