China-Egypt Tourism: Egyptian entrepreneur's experience with Chinese clients

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02:43

As we continue our series on the 40th anniversary of Chinese reforms and opening up to the world, we head to Egypt where Yasser Hakim met with Mohamed El Masry, whose tourism company brings in Chinese visitors. He spoke about his experience working with the Chinese.

Mohamed El Masry's company began work with China in 2001, attracting tourists from China in 2014. He found it difficult at first to communicate because of the language barrier and cultural diversity.

MOHAMED EL MASRY FOUNDER & CEO, TROPIC GROUP "Definitely it's a special market because the culture, the behaviour, the food is totally different in that market to another. Their culture and our culture concerning business and number of population are the same. They have a large population and we have a large population too."

El Masry accompanied Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on his first trip to Beijing in 2014. Since then he opened offices in Beijing and Shenzhen.

YASSER HAKIM CAIRO "How do you describe doing work with Chinese counterparts and Business relations between the Egyptians and Chinese?"

MOHAMED EL MASRY FOUNDER & CEO, TROPIC GROUP "The positive thing in business is that they have a system and they respect the system they have which gives a very good advantage when dealing with them. This facilitates cooperation. They know what they need and they know what they do. This makes business easy with them."

YASSER HAKIM CAIRO "How important is the Chinese market to Egyptian tourism and your company?"

MOHAMED EL MASRY FOUNDER & CEO, TROPIC GROUP "The Chinese market was very important to Egypt all way around especially during the period between 2011 till 2016 with the drop of international tourists. The Chinese kept coming to Egypt maybe the number decreased but it never stopped."

Because of his success with the Chinese market, El Masry's company has become one of the leading tour operators in Egypt. Yasser Hakim CGTN Cairo.