The Gulf countries, tourists from Europe and the United States – so marked a new target audience that can replace Russian tourists in hotels in Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian media.
At least it is in these markets that the country has targeted its new advertising campaign. Egyptian experts remind that the Ukrainian-Russian market accounted for up to a third of the total number of tourists who come to Egypt every year. And their lack – especially in the context of the crisis – must be closed at someone’s expense, especially in the economic crisis and rising inflation in the country.
Target markets have already been identified – in late April, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism launched an advertising campaign on social networks called “Your holiday in Egypt.” To attract foreign tourists. The campaign focused on Arab markets exporting tourism to Egypt, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan. The Sunshine Campaign also took place in March, targeting the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and the United States. In addition, the government seeks to attract tourists from India, Pakistan, Morocco, Algeria and other Gulf countries, including Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.
In 2021, Egypt’s tourism revenues exceeded $ 13 billion, leading to a return to pre-pandemic levels. Back in January 2021, Egypt received 3.5 million tourists. But the situation is conducive to pessimistic forecasts: they predict that inbound tourism to Egypt will decline by 50% compared to 2021, because despite the easing of restrictions on covid-19 in most countries, the war in Ukraine will play a role.
In 2019, Ukraine ranked second in the number of tourists who visited Egypt, with 1.6 million visitors and recorded a growth of 32% compared to 2018. In 2020, more than 727,000 Ukrainian tourists entered Egypt, which is 21% of the total number of foreign tourists who visited Egypt that year, another 1.46 million Ukrainians visited Egypt in 2021.
Egypt recently noted the return of Russian tourists – charters were allowed only in July 2021. And 700,000 Russians have already visited Egypt by the end of 2021.
It should be noted that Egypt continues to negotiate with Russia on the return of flights and aircraft, some progress has already been made, but it is clear that the scale will be much smaller than before the “air sanctions”.