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How Can Egypt Promote Medical Tourism?

The salt lake in Siwa Oasis, an example of medical tourism in Egypt. (Tourism Development Authority)
The salt lake in Siwa Oasis, an example of medical tourism in Egypt. (Tourism Development Authority)
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How Can Egypt Promote Medical Tourism?

The salt lake in Siwa Oasis, an example of medical tourism in Egypt. (Tourism Development Authority)
The salt lake in Siwa Oasis, an example of medical tourism in Egypt. (Tourism Development Authority)

As part of Egypt’s efforts to promote medical tourism, the government has made serious steps in this field. The Ministry of Health and Population recently announced it was planning to launch an electronic platform to provide medical tourism services within three months.

Ministry of Health and Population Spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar stated on Monday that Egypt intends to become among the world’s top five countries in medical tourism and targets 10 percent of the global medical tourism revenues.

The announcement came few days after Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar directed the Supreme Committee for Medical Tourism to swiftly complete the electronic platform and to work with all sectors to level up the medical tourism services.

The minister also indicated that Egypt is qualified for this type of tourism, with its developed health facilities and distinguished doctors, as well as its ambitious plan and vision to be on the international map of medical tourism.

Egypt aims for $14 billion in revenues from the medical tourism sector by the end of 2023, compared to $12.2 billion in 2022, and $8.9 billion in 2021.

Tourism expert Mohammad Farouk told Asharq Al-Awsat that the platform is “highly important”, noting that Egypt has a remarkable experience and good reputation around the world, and that promoting this reputation through the platform would bring significant revenues to Egypt.

Farouk added that some economies, such as India, rely on medical tourism but Egypt suffers from negligence and lacks the mechanisms that enable it to compete in this sector despite the expertise and its highly-equipped hospitals.

He said that many experts and entrepreneurs have called for years to improve medical tourism, noting that the government should have a clear vision to exploit the available resources in this type of tourism. He also highlighted a previous study reporting that medical tourism in Egypt could generate $20 to $25 billion yearly.

Tourism expert Bashar Abu Taleb, head of the Red Sea Tour Guides Syndicate, applauded the idea of the platform and the role it will play in promoting the Egyptian medical products and services around the world. He also described it as a step that keeps up with the digital evolution and the efforts many countries are making in this field.

Abu Taleb said Egypt has remarkable potentials in this industry, such as beaches, sands and weather, but it needs more publicity and better logistics.

The tourism expert highlighted that many hotels and resorts in the Red Sea have integrated hospitals and medical centers in their facilities in the past few years, noting that these experiences proved successful in Hurghada, for example, to which German older tourists flock to seek medical care.

Abu Taleb said the Siwa Oasis in the western desert is known for its therapeutic sands and salt lakes, in addition to sulfur baths in Oyun Musa. Egypt is also known for alternative medicine like herbal medicine, which guarantees unusual therapeutic programs that can be widely promoted on the platform.

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Varieties

India's Skyroot Aerospace Readies Country's 1st Private Orbital Rocket Launch

FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo
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India's Skyroot Aerospace Readies Country's 1st Private Orbital Rocket Launch

FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo

Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace said on Thursday it was preparing for the launch of its Vikram-1 rocket, the first attempt by an Indian private company to place a satellite in orbit.

Founded by former Indian Space Research Organization engineers, Skyroot is developing small rockets similar to those built by Rocket Lab and Firefly Aerospace.

The Vikram-1, a seven-stories-tall, multi-stage ⁠launch vehicle, is designed ⁠to carry payloads of up to 350 kilograms into the low Earth orbit, Reuters reported.

Skyroot, which became India's first space startup to reach a $1 billion valuation after raising $60 million from ⁠GIC and Sherpalo Ventures in May, has set a July 12 - August 4 launch window for the maiden flight from the country's main spaceport, the Satish Dhawan Space Center.

The test flight, carrying a mix of domestic and international customers, aims primarily to collect in-flight performance data across propulsion, guidance and stage separation systems, ⁠the ⁠company said.

The launch comes as India opens its state-dominated space sector to private companies, seeking a bigger share of the global market for satellite launches and related services.

Industrial groups such as Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited are also moving into rocket manufacturing as the government pushes to build a $44 billion space economy by 2033.

Varieties

Coffee with a View: Tourists Flock to Starbucks Overlooking North Korea

TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
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Coffee with a View: Tourists Flock to Starbucks Overlooking North Korea

TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

The contrast cannot be starker: selfie-taking tourists sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalization and capitalism -- while looking out over reclusive, communist North Korea.

Welcome to Aegibong Starbucks in Gimpo -- less than an hour's drive from South Korea's capital Seoul but a world away from its closed-off northern neighbor less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) across the Han river.

Perched on a hilltop beneath the Aegibong Peace Ecopark observatory where telescopes peek into the secluded state, the shop has drawn tens of thousands from South Korea and abroad since opening in November 2024.

Kim Jong-hyun, who lives in San Diego and was visiting South Korea with his family, said it was the irony of the contrast that drew him to the hilltop.

"When I heard there was a Starbucks here, I naturally thought I had to come and see it for myself. It's quite unusual," he told AFP.

Customers need to book ahead to enter the park that houses the coffee house.

They then travel from a parking lot in a shuttle operated by park authorities and cross a military checkpoint guarded by armed South Korean marines.

The journey is part of the experience -- walking the last stretch inside South Korea while looking out on agricultural and mountain landscapes in a country whose outside image the government under Kim Jong Un seeks to manage entirely.

Very few foreign journalists or tourists -- mainly from allies Russia and China -- can enter North Korea, and then under tightly controlled conditions.

South and North Korea are technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The nations are separated by an ironically-named Demilitarized Zone.

The South, an important US security ally, rose from the ruins of war to become an advanced economy home to Samsung Electronics and other tech giants.

But the North -- ruled with an iron fist by a third-generation leader -- is crippled by sanctions over its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

- 'On a different scale' -

James Seymour, an Irish tourist, told AFP the scene from the lookout point was one of "polar opposites."

"We're from Belfast and we're kind of used to war... the Troubles and all that if you know what I mean," he said, referring to the sectarian conflict that gripped Northern Ireland in the late 20th century.

But standing near the border, sipping coffee from a global chain while looking at the North's nondescript low-rise buildings, was "on a different scale completely", he said.

"You couldn't get any more American than Starbucks and you couldn't get any further than America, you know... North Korea."

The number of visitors to Aegibong Peace Ecopark has more than doubled since the Starbucks opened, according to figures provided by park management.

The number of foreign visitors last year rose 275 percent to 56,829 from a year earlier, with Chinese tourists accounting for the largest share, nearly a third.

Lee Chun-woo of the Gimpo Cultural Foundation, which oversees the park, told AFP the increase was "totally attributable to the Starbucks store".

- 'Death to Communism' -

Starbucks Korea said it chose the setting for the "scenic confluence of the Han and Imjin rivers" that offer visitors a "unique place to relax amid nature".

In a statement to AFP, it did not mention the proximity of the 136-square-meter (1,464 square foot) store to North Korea.

But Chung Yong-jin, chairman of the Shinsegae Group that operates Starbucks Korea under a licensing agreement, has been more vocal about the South's secretive neighbor.

In several Instagram posts -- all of which he has since deleted -- Chung used the phrase "Death to Communism" multiple times.

"Whenever North Korea fired missiles, investors pulled their money out," Chung said in a 2022 social media post explaining his comments.

He described himself as "a business owner and as a South Korean citizen who lives with the daily uncertainty of not knowing when a missile might strike" his country.

"To some people, Death to Communism is a political slogan. To me, it's reality," said Chung.

Varieties

Bear Spray Goes Off in Japan Post Office, Five Hospitalized

(FILES) A staff member sorts bells next to an advertisement for bear spray at a store in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture on October 24, 2025. (Photo by Caroline GARDIN / AFP)
(FILES) A staff member sorts bells next to an advertisement for bear spray at a store in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture on October 24, 2025. (Photo by Caroline GARDIN / AFP)
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Bear Spray Goes Off in Japan Post Office, Five Hospitalized

(FILES) A staff member sorts bells next to an advertisement for bear spray at a store in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture on October 24, 2025. (Photo by Caroline GARDIN / AFP)
(FILES) A staff member sorts bells next to an advertisement for bear spray at a store in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture on October 24, 2025. (Photo by Caroline GARDIN / AFP)

Five people needed hospital treatment in Japan after a man accidentally set off an anti-bear spray in a city-center post office, reports and officials said, as the country grapples with a sharp rise in maulings.

A 22-year-old Vietnamese national apologized and told police that he discharged the repellant unintentionally in the incident on Wednesday in the central city of Nagoya, the reports said.

The man, named as Huynh Nhat Duy, was nonetheless arrested on Thursday on suspicion of obstruction of business, police spokesman Kenji Goto told AFP.

"Eight people felt sick, and of those, five were sent to hospital. But there was no report of serious injuries or illness," fire department official Ryohei Asano told AFP.

At least five people have been killed by bears in Japan since April 1 after a record 13 deaths last fiscal year.

This week, authorities said they were investigating a sixth possible fatality after a man's body with bite marks was found in a mountainous area in the north.

Environment ministry data dating back to the year to March 2018 shows that this year is the first to see more than two deaths in the period from April to June.

Scientists attribute the sharp rise in incidents to an increase in the bears' population, a declining number of people in rural areas and other factors including variations in the availability of bears' usual food.

Authorities recommend people avoid going alone into the mountains -- which make up some 80 percent of Japan -- to attach a bell to their bags, and to carry bear sprays.

These aerosols, sold in outdoor activity stores, contain capsaicin -- the chemical component in spicy chili peppers -- and cause a burning and irritating sensation.

Bears are also encroaching increasingly into towns and cities in Japan.

In June, dozens of police, hunters and city officials needed four days to trap a bear roaming Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo, forcing mass school closures.

Before that another bear described as "extremely intelligent" -- it opened a window and turned on a tap -- attacked four people at two factories in Fukushima and remained at large for days.

Last week authorities in Hachioji on the Tokyo outskirts announced plans to buy 700 anti-bear sprays for schools and community organizations, as well as movable electric fences and devices that make high-pitched sounds.