An agreement to launch a campaign to promote Egypt’s troubled tourism sector and one that will revolve around AS Roma and Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah has been reached between the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority and Italy’s football club AS Roma.
The campaign will kick off in September 2016 under the slogan, “Egypt, the official tourist destination of the Roma AS team,” in preparation for the start of tourism’s high season.
Tourism Minister Hisham Zazou stressed the importance of “using non-traditional promotion techniques and making the most possible use of the sweeping popularity of Egyptian celebrities abroad to improve Egypt’s image and boost the industry which has been hit badly since the crash of the Russian airliner in October,” the Al Ahram reported.
Following the crash, the number of Italian tourists visiting Egypt has sharply plunged mainly because of risks related to traveling to Egypt after reports said that a bomb may have downed the Russian plane.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Italy was the third largest market for tourism in Egypt in 2014 after Russia and Germany.
According to Zaazou, the campaign will feature ads to be broadcasted on the team’s radio station and an online contest among AS Roma fans.
The winners will get to meet Salah in person and will be granted free tours to Egypt’s popular tourists’ destinations.
The minister also added that the campaign will involve ads on Sky Calcio satellite channel which will exclusively broadcasts fixtures of the Italian Serie A and the Coppa Italia.
Tourism is Egypt’s second most important source of hard currency after the Suez Canal. It provides direct and indirect employment to up to 12.6 percent of the country’s workforce.
Revenues from tourism represent 11.3 percent of Egypt’s gross domestic product.
