Hisham Zaazou, formerly the senior assistant to Egypt’s Minister of Tourism has been popular with his eco-war.

Zaazou comes to this position after 30+ years in the public and private sectors. Beginning in 1980 in North America with R&H Tourism Co., he expanded operations to Egypt. He then moved on to Sakkara Travel as General Manager.

His interest in the role of the public sector and tourism started when he was elected as the Director General of the Egyptian Tourism Federation followed by his appointment as assistant to the Minister of Tourism (2008).

Some industry experts suggest that too many tourists destroy a destination and Zaazou concurs, “If we don’t do anything, one day we may lose even the great pyramids, because the congestion is humongous. It will be a crime if we sabotage them.”

Zaazou believes that visitor numbers can be regulated; projecting that Egypt can support 20-25 million tourists. The National Sustainable Tourism Plan (NSTP) has been designed to provide regulatory means to reach the sustainability objective.

Hisham Zaazou studied accounting at the Ain Sham University in Cairo, graduating in 1976 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting.

He received his post graduate certificate in Public Private Partnerships from the Harvard/Kennedy School of Business and the UNWTO certificate for courses in Tourism Sustainability, the New Consumer and New Technologies for Promotion.(etn)