Educational Tourism as a Tool to Increase the Competitiveness of Education in Egypt: A Critical Study

Educational tourism is defined as a new tourism pattern, and is considered as an approach to continuing  education, carrying out research activities, and acquiring knowledge. Educational tourism is called in other  names,such as: job development, career improvement, or experience of self-esteem and realization, and  there is no specific age for the person who wants to gain knowledge through educational tourism.

Educational tourism is one of the best ways to help students and adults to gain a good perspective around  the world, and helps in obtaining new cultures and experiences, as traveling to different countries develops individual information about the countries visited, by communicating with the indigenous population, or the  visitor center and get to know their culture and visit their favorite areas. There are many types of educational tours, such as: museum tours, art galleries, historical sites, and local parks. The educational  tourism sector can also become a major educational model, adding value to society by increasing the level  of education and creating new economic opportunities.

The concept of educational tourism has a large share in global tourism programs, whether American, European or Asian, etc., and the United States of America comes first among the countries that students  come to in order to study, and obtain study in the best possible way, through educational facilities. In the  second place, the United Kingdom comes, followed by Australia, then Germany, France and Japan.  However, they face a big common problem, which is the language barrier. While developing countries have shown reasonable growth in this sector so that educational tourism represents 10% of the total tourist sector  in a country like Jordan.

 In Egypt, there are some challenges facing international students to study in Egypt as well as the absence of  academic or formal studies to assess the role of educational tourism in Egypt so far.Thisresearch aims to evaluate educationaltourism in Egypt through acriticalstudy of the researcher based on work experience  and responsibility for international students, as well as in light of international experiences of educational tourism.

 Among the important results highlighted by the study are that the Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt has a new vision for educational tourism through which it seeks to attract more international students to study in Egypt and the medical sector has acquired a large proportion of international students. The study provides  some recommendations, including increasing the proportion of joint academic programs with international  universities, and granting incentives and benefits to tourism companies that provide educational tourism  services and facilities.  

Keywords: Educational Tourism; International Students; International Student Department;Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education; Educational Tourism Companies.