SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Financial Times – Sudan pins tourism hopes on archaeological treasures
The FT’s feature on the “sluggish” state of Sudanese tourism notes that Sudan’s “greatest archaeological treasure” – the pyramids of the royal city of Meroë is “largely unvisited by outsiders”
However, Hatim Elnour Mohamed, who heads Sudan’s General Authority of Antiquities and Museums, said the “hospitable Sudanese people — still unaccustomed to mass tourism” are a source of optimism despite the lack of tourism infrastructure.
Carla Piazza, director of the Italian Tourism Company (ITC), one of the largest private operators in Sudan, said Sudan is “unready for big numbers, yet it is ready for gradual growth and [Sudan] needs to understand that”.
FT add that tourism visas to enter Sudan and official travel permits to roam outside Khartoum are “still cumbersome to obtain”, and western credit cards are rarely accepted. Still, Sudan desperately needs hard currency, “so the country and its people merit all possible effort to fix this,” adds Piazza.