World Travel Market (WTM) London 2019 concluded yesterday, during which the participating Egyptian pavilion succeeded in attracting visitors and also hosted several important business meetings with foreign tourism companies and tour operators throughout the market, held from November 4 to 6.
Eng. Ahmed Youssef, head of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, held many business meetings, most notably with TUI, easyJet airline, easyJet Holidays, Love Holidays, Kuoni and SunExpress.
Youssef stated that tour operators and major tourism and aviation companies confirmed their desire to increase their business volume in Egypt, in addition to the growing demand from British tourists to visit Egyptian tourist cities, which are among their favorite destinations. This will lead to an increase in tourist flows from the British market in the coming seasons, especially after the lifting of the ban on direct flights to Sharm El-Sheikh, as TUI Group will start its flights to Sharm El-Sheikh during the current winter season, and British carrier easyJet will launch flights to Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada for the first time next year.
During the meetings, Youssef reviewed the improvement in inbound tourism rates to Egypt in 2018 and 2019, stressing the importance of the efforts made by tour operators and airlines in the past period to increase tourist numbers.
The head of the authority also spoke about the positive results of the new aviation incentive program launched by the Ministry of Tourism, which came into effect in November 2018 and runs until April 2020, and which has had a great impact in increasing inbound tourist traffic, stressing the importance of making use of the program to drive more traffic to the governorates where tourism has been affected recently. He explained that the program offers additional incentives for achieving sustainable growth once every 6 months, divided into progressive tiers on the incentivized flights.
Youssef noted that the ministry has approved the new rules and criteria for joint promotional campaigns, to make them more impactful and effective in promoting Egypt.
It is worth noting that the Ministry of Tourism won, for the first time, the "International Leadership Award for Effective Contribution to the Global Tourism Industry 2019" from World Travel Market London, in recognition of the ministry's efforts over the past two years, which have had a major impact on the tourism industry in the Middle East region.
