Ashton and Blair to visit Luxor amid New Year preparations

[لافانيا]

Ashton and Blair to visit Luxor amid New Yearpreparations

Dec. 18, 2013 13:33

Luxor -

CAIRO: Military helicopters flew in the sky on Tuesday over monuments like the Karnak temple and the western tombs in Luxor, in preparation for the visit of Catharine Ashton and Tony Blair.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the former British Prime Minister are set to visit the Luxor monuments as part of their visitation program to Egypt, amid the governorate’s preparations to celebrate the New Year’s Eve.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud al-Araby, the director of Luxor International Airport, said that the time of the visit had not been announced until now, noting however that the visit will not be an official visit.

In same context, the authorities in Luxor seek to use the visit to promote tourism for the monument sites.

Other touristic governorates like South Sinai saw 86,038 tourists of different nationalities during November and the first half of December, to spend Christmas in Nuweiba, Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh and Saint Catherine, a local official source said.

Major General Khaled Fouda, the Governor of South Sinai, affirmed that the rate of occupancy in hotels and touristic villages has increased to about 60 percent, but still remains less than the regular rate.