Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Sherif Fathy, held a series of high-level meetings with leading Italian tour operators and airline executives during his official visit to Rome and Milan, aiming to strengthen cooperation and increase tourist arrivals from the Italian market.
The meetings focused on expanding joint promotional campaigns, organizing familiarization trips for Italian tour operators, media representatives, and influencers to experience Egypt’s diverse tourism offerings firsthand, and encouraging greater promotion of the country’s wide range of travel experiences.
Discussions also covered the Ministry’s aviation incentive programme, particularly the incentives offered for flights to Egyptian destinations including Marsa Matrouh, El Alamein, Luxor, and Aswan, with the goal of increasing air connectivity and supporting tourism growth.
Fathy said that his visit reflects the Ministry’s commitment to maintaining direct engagement with tourism industry partners to review recent developments in Egypt’s tourism sector and explore mechanisms to boost visitor flows from Italy, describing tour operators, travel agencies, and airlines as key partners in achieving the country’s tourism growth targets.
The minister highlighted measures taken by the government to mitigate the impact of ongoing regional challenges, including continuous coordination with airlines and travel companies and adjustments to the flight incentive programme to ensure the continuity of operations to Egyptian destinations.
He also showcased the Ministry’s “Egypt Vibes” campaign, which features authentic experiences shared by international visitors and aims to reinforce confidence in Egypt as a safe and stable tourism destination.
Addressing broader industry challenges, Fathy noted that rising fuel prices remain one of the most significant obstacles facing the global tourism industry, stressing the importance of government support for international mobility—both for tourism and cargo transportation—through air and maritime transport to accelerate global economic recovery amid the current crisis.
The minister also outlined the Ministry’s tourism strategy under the slogan “Egypt, Unmatched Diversity,” emphasizing Egypt’s unique combination of tourism products and experiences.
He explained that the Ministry is working to integrate these offerings into comprehensive travel programmes that encourage longer stays and repeat visits.
According to Fathy, an increasing number of travel companies now offer itineraries combining multiple tourism experiences, such as Cairo with Nile cruises or the North Coast with Siwa Oasis, and he encouraged Italian tour operators to further promote these integrated packages.
He added that visitor satisfaction studies have identified Egypt’s greatest strengths as the diversity of its tourism products, the authenticity of the travel experience, traditional Egyptian cuisine, and the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to improve the visitor experience, including the recent development of tourism services in the Giza Pyramids area.
For their part, Italian tourism executives said that cultural tourism programmes to Egypt continue to perform strongly, while multi-experience packages are becoming increasingly popular among Italian travellers, who prefer combining leisure holidays with cultural and exploratory experiences, such as visits to Marsa Alam and Aswan.
They praised Egypt’s diverse tourism offering as one of its strongest competitive advantages and commended the close cooperation with their Egyptian partners.
The executives also noted that families remain a key customer segment for many Italian travel companies and said Egypt has successfully maintained its appeal to this market throughout the current year.
Despite regional geopolitical challenges and higher aviation fuel costs, they reported that booking trends have improved significantly since last week, adding that Egypt has outperformed several competing destinations and has been less affected by regional developments than many other tourism markets.
Representatives of one Italian company also announced plans to organize a staff trip to Egypt in December to participate in the marathon scheduled to take place at the Giza Pyramids, with the itinerary also including a visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum.
