As part of the partnership the Ministry of Tourism established with the global Discovery network of channels, announced last September, and in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, Discovery is filming and producing 3 promotional films about the Grand Egyptian Museum, scheduled to open in 2020, to be broadcast on the network's various channels in many countries around the world ahead of the museum's opening to the public, in order to create global excitement about the opening of this major cultural landmark.
Promoting the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, GEM2020, is one of the core elements of the promotion and marketing pillar of the structural reform program for developing the tourism sector, and comes as part of the ministry's plan to promote the museum's opening.
Through this partnership, the ministry aims to use the global Discovery network (Discovery Channel, TLC, Travel Channel) and its social media network to launch a promotional campaign for Egypt in the most important source markets for tourism: China in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
In this context, the Discovery network hosted Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Tourism, in a filmed interview to talk about the Grand Egyptian Museum. The interview will be aired in the three films the channel is producing about the museum, which is one of the largest cultural and archaeological projects in the world and the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization.
Al-Mashat said the ministry is promoting the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum at all major international forums and events, and is also dedicating a section to promoting it in all Egyptian pavilions at the major international tourism fairs in which the ministry takes part.
She noted that the museum houses many archaeological and cultural treasures that distinguish Egypt and that only this museum will display, as the complete collection of King Tutankhamun's artifacts, numbering 5,000 pieces, will be displayed for the first time. She also pointed to the statue of King Ramses II, which was moved in 2006 to its new final location in the grand hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum so that it will be the first thing to greet the museum's visitors, and highlighted the museum's distinguished location in front of the Giza Pyramids, where tourists can take “selfies” with the pyramids while enjoying the King Tutankhamun collection.
The minister spoke about Sphinx Airport, 15 minutes from the museum site, which will help facilitate tourist traffic to the museum and give tourists the opportunity to head to various tourist cities after visiting it, such as Sharm El-Sheikh or New Alamein City, explaining that the airport will provide a great opportunity to diversify tourism programs and combine cultural tourism with other types of tourism, including beach tourism.
She added that the international promotional campaign for Egypt also includes promoting each governorate or tourist attraction separately to highlight its distinctive features (Branding by Destination), in addition to the People to People campaign, which highlights the diversity of the Egyptian people and aims to strengthen human closeness between the peoples of the world and the Egyptian people.
It is worth noting that the Discovery network held an interview with Dr. Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Antiquities, in which he talked about the museum.
Discovery is one of the world's largest leading entertainment companies, owning 53 brands that reach 3 billion subscribers in 224 countries, and is known for its many award-winning programs.
The partnership with the global Discovery network includes a tourism campaign to produce promotional content for Egyptian tourism worldwide, with the company producing advertisements and promotional and digital content for Discovery, TLC and Travel Channel in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Europe, Russia, India, Southeast Asia, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the United States.
The partnership aims to promote Egypt's various distinctive tourist areas by showcasing the diverse types of tourism the country offers, and preparing a series of episodes about Marsa Alam and a promotional film about Siwa and the White Desert (“Branding by Destination”), in addition to highlighting the warmth and hospitality of its people (“People to People”), through producing and publishing distinctive, innovative creative content about tourist destinations in Egypt.
The Ministry of Tourism announced last September that it had established a number of international partnerships with global promotion and marketing institutions specialized in multiple fields, to complete the elements of the promotion and marketing pillar of the structural reform program for developing the tourism sector, in light of the ministry's efforts to diversify promotion platforms and modernize Egypt's marketing mechanisms in order to present a contemporary, non-stereotypical image of Egypt.
These international institutions include Beautiful Destinations, the global CNN network, whose partnership details the Ministry of Tourism announced last May, China's Ctrip, Discovery, the global Expedia Group and Isobar.
