Tourism Minister: Continuing to harness modern technology and expand partnerships with digital platforms to strengthen promotion efforts
Flight incentive program helped grow flights to Egypt by 3% despite regional circumstances
Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy chaired a board meeting of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, at which the authority's CEO, Dr. Ahmed Youssef, reviewed the results of the authority's tourism promotion plan for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The plan included various promotional activities, from joint advertising and marketing campaigns and promotional partnerships to familiarization trips, hosting bloggers and influencers from various markets, roadshows and trade-focused activities, as well as participation in international tourism fairs.
Youssef explained that during the last fiscal year, the authority took part in 40 international tourism fairs, carried out 146 joint marketing campaigns and organized 180 familiarization trips and 26 roadshows, noting that it has expanded roadshows to promising and fast-growing markets in line with the board's directives.
He added that 40 trade-focused activities and 24 promotional campaigns and partnerships were carried out and 14 promotional content pieces produced, along with sponsoring 126 domestic events and carrying out 177 tourism awareness activities and trips targeting around 25,000 Egyptian citizens, as well as organizing 471 awareness seminars in a number of governorates.
In this context, Sherif Fathy stressed that the current promotion strategy focuses on making the most of available resources and using them more efficiently and effectively, helping to reach more target markets while balancing quantity and quality to achieve the best results, and continuing to make use of modern technology and expand partnerships with digital platforms.
The minister stressed the importance of continuous follow-up and regular analysis of data, allowing the necessary adjustments to marketing plans in line with developments and changes in tourism markets and the volume of arrivals from them.
He noted the importance of a dynamic and flexible tourism marketing strategy, pointing out that Egypt's unrivaled diversity as a destination offers wide opportunities to diversify and develop marketing messages to suit the nature and characteristics of each market and its tourists' preferences, which differ from one market to another depending on many factors.
The meeting also reviewed the authority's plan for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, including its plan for participation in international tourism fairs, and briefed the board on the status of booking space for the Egyptian pavilions at these fairs.
In this context, the results of a coordination meeting held by the authority's CEO in recent days with representatives of the private tourism sector were reviewed. These included leaders of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, the Chamber of Travel and Tourism Companies and Agencies and the Chamber of Hotel Establishments, to prepare and discuss the plan for participation in international fairs in the new fiscal year, strengthening integration and coordination between the authority, the federation and the chambers, making the most of these participations and helping to achieve the targets of the ministry's strategy to highlight Egypt's tourism diversity.
The meeting also reviewed the main indicators of inbound tourism to Egypt in the recent period and the key measures the ministry has taken to maintain tourist arrivals in light of current regional events, including the Vibes of Egypt initiative launched by the authority to highlight the experiences tourists enjoy every day during their visits to Egypt and showcase the diversity and uniqueness of the destination, as well as the incentive measures and programs implemented to maintain air traffic.
In this context, the minister said these measures helped maintain air traffic to Egyptian destinations and thus achieve growth in tourist arrivals despite the challenges facing the region.
He noted that the idea of the Vibes of Egypt campaign is now being used in several ways that together reflect the diverse experiences tourists enjoy during their visits to Egypt, as well as highlighting the various events taking place in Egyptian destinations.
Fathy pointed to the importance of a published annual calendar of events and activities in Egyptian destinations, helping to promote them and supporting efforts to attract more tourist arrivals.
The meeting also discussed and approved the rules for joint advertising and marketing campaigns, and reviewed the preliminary indicators of the ministry's flight incentive program in May and June, which saw a 3% increase in the number of flights while maintaining the volume of airline seats to Egypt despite the current regional circumstances, thanks to the proactive adjustments the ministry made to the incentive programs when events began.
Some airports, including El Alamein and Matrouh, saw notable growth in flights compared with the same period last year. The results of the flight incentive program from November to the end of April and its positive indicators were also reviewed.
The meeting saw extensive discussions on the proposed policy for the incentive program for the 2026-2027 tourism season, with the board approving the program's basic rules ahead of their presentation and discussion at the board meeting of the Tourism and Antiquities Support Fund, after which partners will be notified.
