Al-Mashat Opens Egyptian Pavilion at ITB Berlin, With Promotional Campaign Focusing on Grand Egyptian Museum

By Akram Medhat

Minister of Tourism Dr. Rania Al-Mashat today, Wednesday, opened the Egyptian pavilion participating in the ITB Berlin international travel trade show, held from March 6 to 10 in the German capital, Berlin. The pavilion saw a notable turnout of visitors from the start of the first day of the show.

The opening was attended by South Sinai Governor Maj. Gen. Khaled Fouda; Red Sea Governor Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah; Eng. Ahmed Youssef, head of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority; Ahmed El-Wassif, chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Federation; Magued Fawzy, head of the Chamber of Hotel Establishments; and Hossam El-Shaer, chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Companies.

Egypt is participating this year with a large pavilion covering 1,178 square meters and an upper floor of 75 square meters, featuring 100 participants, including 35 tourism companies and 59 hotels, in addition to stands for the Egyptian Tourism Federation, the Chamber of Tourism Companies, the Chamber of Hotels, the Red Sea Governorate, EgyptAir and Air Cairo.

Al-Mashat said that what is new this year is placing the logo of the Ministry of Tourism's campaign promoting the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, GEM 2020, on ITB Berlin entry tickets, while giant billboards for the museum have also been put up in the streets of the German capital, Berlin, "to draw everyone's attention to the largest archaeological museum in the world."

Al-Mashat and the official Egyptian delegation toured the pavilion and inspected the spaces dedicated to the various tourist destinations, where screens display promotional material on each tourist city separately (Branding By Destination), as well as the space dedicated to promoting the Grand Egyptian Museum, which shows footage from inside the project by Dr. Zahi Hawass, along with a model of the museum and three-dimensional hologram images of King Tutankhamun's golden mask and his throne.

The tour also included the area dedicated to serving Egyptian food, which drew a large turnout of exhibition visitors.

The Egyptian delegation inspected the corridor designed with technology that allows visitors to live an interactive experience in which they see the natural scenery of the Red Sea depths around them using virtual reality technology. They used 3D glasses showing 360-degree footage of the Red Sea depths and of the Sinai Trail, Egypt's first long-distance hiking trail, which passes through Mount Saint Catherine, to promote adventure tourism, one of the new types of tourism.

There was also the Egyptian music space, featuring three musicians on harp and flute playing Egyptian music.

They inspected the statue of King Ramses II, designed using augmented reality "hologram" technology, and took photos with Egyptian students and scholars living in Germany, whom the Ministry of Tourism enlisted for the first time to welcome visitors to the Egyptian pavilion in Pharaonic costumes and to serve as ambassadors for Egypt, as the ministry will extend this experience to upcoming exhibitions abroad.