Egypt’s new government appointed Mohamed Hisham Abbas Zaazou as tourism minister on Aug. 2.  Zaazou was previously the first assistant to the minister of tourism, a post he has been in since 2008. He has worked in the tourism industry for more than 30 years and has held senior advisory roles in the public sector, as well as in the private sector.

Zaazou serves on the boards of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, Egyptian Tourist Authority, Tourism Development Authority and Arab Tourism Organization. He also is a member of the UNWTO. He was appointed to the cabinet by Dr. Hisham Kandil, Egypt’s new prime minister.

While the tourism minister is just one of 33 ministers, he holds a very important position in Egypt because the travel and tourism sector accounts for 12 percent of the employment in the nation. It will be Zaazou’s job to help revive travel to Egypt, which has been deeply damaged by the drop in tourism following the Arab Spring in early 2011 and the instability in the government since that time.