The Ministry of Tourism held a meeting with JWT company to discuss the launch of Egypt's promotional campaign abroad in November. Sources said the campaign will be launched in Egypt at the same time it is launched in the WTM London 2015 conference. They added that head of the Egyptian Union has travelled abroad, therefore the tripartite meeting between Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou, and the CEO of JWT Hany Shoukry was postponed to next week. The sources said the Egyptian Federation of Tourism and the Egyptian Chamber of Hotels will have a major role in the campaign, both at home and abroad. A closed-door meeting was held last September between Zaazou and Chairman of the Tourism Activation Authority Samy Mahmoud, as well as Shoukry. It was agreed that a tripartite meeting would be held to discuss the promotion process. The campaign will be launched using the hash-tag # this_is_Egypt. All state institutions participating in the campaign will put this hash-tag on their websites. The Ministry of Tourism is considering holding a global conference in November, with the participation of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and various ministries, to launch the campaign. Media officials and international artists would also be invited to participate in the promotional campaign. The Ministry of Tourism had contracted with JWT to promote tourism in Egypt for three years, at a cost of $22.6m per year. JWT gets 3%-4% of the total cost of the campaign annually. An official in the Ministry of Tourism, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the promotional campaign will focus on the areas that suffer a decline in tourism, especially Luxor and Aswan, by holding direct meetings with foreign trip organisers of the world's largest travel agencies. The official said the London exhibition next November is one of the largest tourism exhibitions in Europe during the current period, and its timing is suitable as it coincides with the winter season in Egypt, which witnessed a peak in tourism flow to Egypt. CEO of JWT, Hany Shoukry, previously said, during an interview with Daily News Egypt, that his company "will work according to separate marketing mechanisms for each area, whether in South Sinai or the Red Sea, according to tourist segments that visit each region". Head of the Tourism Activation Authority Samy Mahmoud, said that the authority is working to implement the short-term plan announced by the Minister of Tourism, beginning October, to raise tourist numbers to 10 million tourists by the end of the year. The authority commissioned its foreign offices to follow-up on global media reports on Egypt, especially in the major markets of Europe, according to Mahmoud. According to sources, the tourism ministry is in contact with a group of world-class hotels in Egypt to pick six managers to travel to the Netherlands and Belgium later this month. The sources said the ministry will seek the assistance of international hotel managers in Egypt, to ensure that the message they wish to deliver to foreign markets regarding tourism in Egypt is effective.
