The 'Sunny January' promotional campaign — which was launched by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board (ETPB) in late 2021 to promote the country's top travel destinations for winter 2022 — achieved remarkable success on various social media sites in Egypt and several countries where the campaign was launched. The campaign used to be called 'Sunny Christmas', since its launch coincided with Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations in Western countries, however, this year it was renamed. The e-campaign targeted tourists from seven countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, France, the UK, and the US. For his part, CEO of the ETPB Amr Al-Kady explained that this campaign was launched on 25 December 2021 for four to eight weeks on the most popular websites and social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and VK. He added that this campaign succeeded in reaching 107m users and raising the rates of the electronic search for Egypt in these targeted markets by 95% compared to last year. Al-Kady also noted that the use of modern promotional means in launching such campaigns to promote tourism gives the ability to measure the degree of effectiveness and feasibility of these campaigns through the number of interactions on social media platforms, which is an essential part in applying the flexibility and methodology of planning these campaigns. Meanwhile, Lamia Kamel — the Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Promotion — indicated that promoting through social media sites using a variety of content ranging between photos, videos, and written content from publications is an essential part of the ministry's marketing mix, stressing that social media pages are a necessary part of the brand of the Egyptian tourist destination and the primary mechanism to share this sponsored content and inspire travellers to discover Egypt. Suzan Mostafa — the Director-General of Tourism Promotion at the Egyptian Tourism Authority — explained that through this campaign, light was shed on various tourist attractions in several tourist and archaeological governorates as well as the warm weather in Egypt that is characterised with intimacy, fun, sunshine, and kindness enjoyed by the country's citizens. It is worth noting that the launch of this campaign comes within the framework of the media strategy for tourism promotion in Egypt, which aims to highlight Egypt as a tourist destination with a young and vibrant identity and as an attractive destination that visitors may want to stay in for a long time and visit annually.
