The Ministry of Tourism is intensifying marketing campaigns starting from October in the main markets exporting tourism to Egypt through Facebook and approximately 2000 bloggers, said Minster of Tourism Hisham Zaazou. According to Zaazou, previous marketing and promotional campaigns did not utilise an internet presence to attract new categories of travellers to Egypt, particularly young people. "We will work on becoming self-reliant in marketing campaigns by granting this opportunity to young people working at the ministry, and we have already found very competent people who produced promotional films for the Arab market over the last few months," Zaazou said. According to Zaazou, tourism from the Arab Gulf and Jordan has increased by 20% over the past three months as a result of modern marketing methods. In a previous interview with Daily News Egypt, Zaazou said that the ministry's aim was to reach the 10 million tourist threshold in 2014. During the first half of 2014, 4.5 million tourists visited Egypt, representing a 25% decrease from the same period last year. The ministry has signed a cooperation protocol with Visa Inc. to market Egyptian tourism products in exporting tourism markets, in addition to another cooperation protocol signed with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The ministry has signed a contract with Hill & Knowlton Strategies for a period of six months to push for arrivals during the coming winter season in five different European markets. Cultural tourism is one of the most important sectors of tourism that will be promoted via the internet, according to Zaazou, who added that this type of tourism was the most adversely affected by the crises of the past three and a half years. "E-marketing is the cheapest, most time efficient, and the best method for accessing new segments of consumers in different areas that traditional marketing cannot reach", said Zaki Adel, Head of the International Tourism sector at the Chamber of Tour Operators and Travel Agents. Adel believes several European tourism marketing firms were closed in recent months due to their use of traditional marketing methods. "Historic tourism in Egypt will be among the most highly promoted tourism products in the coming months. Ancient Egyptian antiquities have great fame, especially in Western Europe and East Asia," according to Adel.
