Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Moment of Truth .. I Hoped to See Mohamed Salah in Berlin


Tue 12 Mar 2019 | 09:21 AM
Yassmine Elsayed

By: Elham Aboul Fateh

Days ago, I returned from Germany, specifically from the International Tourism Exchange Berlin ITB, where the Egyptian pavilion achieved great success and excellence. And because I always aspire more excellence and success, I wished I would have found Mo Salah, Moahmed EL-Nenny as well as our Egyptian soccer stars in Europe, there at ITB, especially as Egypt is going to organize AFCON 2019 and those would be very excellent promoters for tourism for their great popularity in Europe ..

I also did not see the path of the Holy Family presented, despite the fact that Pope Francis of Vatican recognized it as a religious tourism destination.. I wished If we had allocated more space for it to attract world’s religious tourists, especially as the ITB is the largest stock market for tourism in the world.

More than 10 thousand exhibitors and about 120 thousand who work in tourism sector, from more than 187 countries, are taking part.. We put a lot of hopes on the ITB, to put wind in the tourism sail  in Egypt, as the main season will start next October .. The German market is one of the most important tourist markets for Egypt, which achieved the highest growth rates in the number of visiting tourists in 2018 (55.1%).

According to the World Tourism Organization, Egypt is the fastest growing tourism destination in the world. It preceded Italy, Vietnam, Greece, Tunisia and Israel.

Since I use to attend ITB, annually, I realized the different but also unprecedented level of the Egyptian participation this year.. It came via an official delegation led by the active minister Dr. Rania Al Mashat, along with 35 tourism company, 59 hotels and resorts, all constituting the Egyptian pavilion. This pavilion was very well organized, equipped with latest technological means to present the promoted destinations.

It is for the first time, there were special places with large screens, displaying promoting material for every Egyptian tourist city, in addition to the motto which marks the opening of the new Egyptian museum "GEM 2020" and was printed on entry tickets. For this opening, a certain space of the pavilion was allocated for displaying a maquette for the museum as well as 3D images of the golden mask of King Tutankhamun and his throne.

In addition, a statue of King Ramses II, was designed using the augmented reality "Hologram", a hieroglyphic mosaic were displayed as well as giant signs in the streets of the German capital to attract the attention of everyone to the largest museum of antiquities in the world.

Thanks Allah, Egypt strongly reclaimed its share at world’s tourism. According to the World Tourism Organization and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Egypt is on the right path towards a great future in tourism.

Their figures revealed that by the end of 2018,11.5 million tourists came to Egypt, Europeans were the majority of those, followed by Arabs, counted total of about 3 million. Asians ranked third with a total of 600,000, then Africans 150,000, as well as 63,000 of different nationalities.

I was very impressed as the Ministry of Tourism has, for the first time, taken advantage of the Egyptian youth, students residing in Germany and the Egyptian community there, to welcome the visitors of the Egyptian pavilion in Pharaonic garlands. A very good idea from Dr. Mashat to connect those young people to their motherland and to be Egyptian ambassadors. The idea is to be applied in the following abroad exhibitions.

An Egyptian tourist experience which I have lived as well as the visitors of the pavilion. During the tour inside the pavilion, Egyptian food was served as well as music was played, in addition to some interactive and entertaining activities, all emphasize the Egyptian identity and culture.

What was amazing, also, was a hallway designed with modern technology, enables visitors to experience the depths of the Red Sea landscapes, using virtual reality technology and using 3D glasses .. also there was a presentation of 360-degree video footage of the Sinai Road, the first long walkway in Egypt, passes by Mount St. Catherine, for adventure tourists.

Large display screens moving all around the pavilion were there, displaying promotional materials all the time.

All this made the Egyptian pavilion the largest and most distinctive across the ITB but also a great turnout .. Once you see it, you realize the big effort exerted to make it success.

Attending ITB this year made me feel the size of the effort and excellence, which made the Egyptian pavilion such impressive.. All thanks to the active minister who works day and night, to our Ambassador in Berlin Badr Abdel Ati and the Egyptian businessmen at the tourism sector. Special thanks to Businessman Mohamed Aboul El Enein, whose participation was a real asset especially as he invited Jeremy Johnson, chairman of the Board at ‘Beautiful’, the world's largest company in the field of tourism marketing through electronic media and the Internet, to visit Egypt to learn about the development of the Egyptian tourism sector, and was responded that Egypt will be among the top countries promoted by his company during the coming seasons.