The Tourism Promotion Authority works according to a scientific strategy based on the study of target markets and promotional plans before proceeding to move in those markets to achieve optimum results, said Hisham Al Demiri, head of the authority, in a press statement on Wednesday.
Al Demiri explained that the rumours that Egypt’s international promotional campaign has a budget of around $40m annually is completely incorrect, adding that the allocated campaign budget is $22m a year.
He clarified that this amount is used for promotions in 26 different markets, where the share of each market does not exceed $800,000. He added that there are many new and promising markets that were added, which were not included among the 26 markets, such as some countries in Latin America and Southern Europe. Allocating a portion of the total amount to cover those markets, he said, resulted in reducing the share of each of the 26 markets.
Moreover, Al Demiri pointed out that only $19m was used in the first year in 2016, according to market studies conducted in the first year, taking into consideration the travel ban imposed by many countries to Egyptian tourist destinations after the Russian plane accident in 2015 and applying the general policy of the state to rationalise spending.
He explained that at the beginning of the second year of the campaign, the authority only used $9m, according to market studies and estimates, which advised them to focus on the winter season, which is the largest and the most important Egyptian tourism season.
Al Demiri said that marketing has now evolved significantly and that the world is moving towards digital marketing, adding that the ministry succeeded in organising campaigns relative to each market and its acceptance of the Egyptian campaigns.
The statement explained that the advertising campaign, launched in September 2016 in 11 markets, had a significant impact on improving the mental image of Egypt abroad, which led to the lifting of the ban on travel to Egypt, imposed by many of the major markets exporting tourists to Egypt from Europe, Asia, and the United States of America, with the exception of Russia, and the partial embargo imposed by England on Sharm El-Sheikh, as well as to a substantial improvement in the indicators of tourist movement starting in December 2016 after the launch of the campaign in target markets, as statistics show.
The first four months of 2017 witnessed a significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals to Egypt from most markets, reaching a total of 51% compared to the same period of last year.
Furthermore, Arab markets witnessed a big leap, where Arab tourism has achieved the highest rates during the first 4 months of 2017, compared to the 8 previous years, an increase of more than 30% for the same period in 2010. The German market witnessed an increase of 50%, and the Italian market 30%, compared to the same period last year. As for the English market, which still has a ban on flights to Sharm El-Sheikh—the main destination for English tourism—it achieved a 20% increase compared to the same period.
