Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa on Tuesday opened the Egyptian pavilion at the ITB Berlin.
ITB Berlin is being held on 7-9 March in the German capital.
The ministry is represented by the General Egyptian Authority for Tourism Promotion.
Issa said the ITB is the largest annual gathering of the global tourism industry and many official government delegations and senior professionals working in the tourism sector globally attend.
A series of meetings is being held during the event, presenting opportunities to communicate with professional partners in the travel and tourism industry in Germany and around the world, Issa said, adding that the German market is one of the largest for tourism to Egypt.
On Tuesday, the minister met with Eebastian Ebel, Chairman of the Management Board of TUI Germany, Thomas Bösl, President of the Quality Travel Alliance (QTA), Europe’s largest travel and tourism alliance and Ralph Schiller, CEO of the FTI Group.
The pavilion hosts 97 exhibitors — EgyptAir, Air Cairo, Nesma Airlines, the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers, 60 hotels and 32 tour operators.
The design of the pavilion was inspired by the layout of the Grand Egyptian Museum with a model of the Great Staircase with reproductions of statues on it. The façade of the pavilion is in the form of two large edifices with screens displaying various tourism and promotional films and pictures and the logo of Egypt.
There is also a small theatre with a female harpist against a background of three holographic views of King Tutankhamun’s artefacts.
At the back of the pavilion there is a model of the obelisk that stands at the entrance to the Grand Egyptian Museum, plus six screens displaying ancient Egyptian models and reproductions, and there is a display screen at the top of the back facade to display promotional films.
It is the first time that the ITB Berlin has been held in person since the Covid-19, as it has been held virtually since this crisis.
The ITB is held annually and is considered the most important and largest international tourism gathering with more than 10,000 exhibitors representing more than 180 countries. It has more than 170,000 visitors, including 110,000 professional visitors, as well as 1,000 major investors in the tourism sector, in addition to the media presence from 70 countries and 400 bloggers from 30 countries.
Egypt has also participated in the ITB annually since 1971.
The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities recently hosted a press delegation from Germany on an introductory visit to the Egyptian tourist destination.
This visit included a number of tourist and archaeological sites in the cities of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, St. Catherine, Luxor, Alexandria and Cairo, as part of the ministry’s efforts to promote the Egyptian tourist destination.
