The Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority took part in the BIT 2026 international tourism exhibition held in Milan, Italy, from 10 to 12 February. The Egyptian pavilion was opened by Ambassador Walid Osman, Consul General of Egypt in Milan, and Ismail Amer, Director General of the authority's General Department of Foreign Offices, in the presence of Sherine Samir, the authority's Italian market officer, and Eng. Nadia Hossam El-Din, a member of the authority's General Department of Exhibitions and Events and supervisor of the Egyptian pavilion's design.
For his part, Dr. Ahmed Youssef, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, noted that the Italian market is one of the most important source markets for tourism to Egypt and saw a notable surge in the number of tourists arriving from it to the Egyptian destination in 2025 compared with 2024, with expectations that this growth will continue this year. He stressed the authority's keenness to take part continuously in BIT, especially as it is one of the most important tourism exhibitions in the Italian market, offering a good opportunity to meet the public visiting the exhibition and industry partners, including tour operators and tourism decision-makers, to exchange views and ideas that help attract more inbound tourist traffic from this important tourism market.
During the exhibition, Ismail Amer held a number of professional meetings with representatives of the Italian travel agencies federation "Fiavet", a number of leading tour operators, representatives of travel companies and major online booking sites. They discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in the coming period and work plans to promote the diverse destinations, types and products of the Egyptian destination, as well as listening to their views on increasing tourist flows from the Italian market to Egypt. They were also briefed on the latest developments in the Italian tourism market and the trends of Italian tourists.
These meetings also highlighted the tourism types and products of the Egyptian destination, especially new ones, as well as the tourist destinations the state seeks to place on the Italian tourism map, including the North Coast and New Alamein City, in addition to discussing the Grand Egyptian Museum, one of the major national projects, which opened last November, and the Holy Family Trail in Egypt.
To strengthen Egypt's participation in the exhibition and shed more light on the Egyptian pavilion to attract visitors, advertisements were broadcast in the corridors leading to the entrance of the hall housing the Egyptian pavilion, and an advertisement was placed at the exhibition's main southern gate highlighting the diverse tourist destinations of the Egyptian destination.
It is worth noting that the authority took part in BIT this year with a 120 m² pavilion designed in Pharaonic style with a modern touch and equipped with large display screens to show promotional films about the various tourist destinations. The Egyptian pavilion saw the participation of 5 travel companies and 4 hotel establishments, in addition to an airline.
