#ThisIsEgypt: When the State Tries Social Media Marketing

BY DEENA SABRY
@DEENASABRY

Social media users have recently been overwhelmed with a myriad of photos of serene beaches and majestic pharaonic temples all grouped together under a general strategy to boost tourism.

The #ThisIsEgypt hashtag is part of a marketing campaign launched by the Ministry of Tourism in an attempt to revive the tourism industry, which has been largely stagnant in recent years.

The campaign went viral, but not before being hit with a backlash of criticism that it provided an unrealistic portrayal of Egypt.

The campaign’s official video, posted on YouTube in December last year, shows the best of the country’s enduring vistas and breathtaking landscapes; it ends by calling on viewers to share pictures of Egypt online.

“I thought the ad was very well-made but I did not like how they didn’t identify the places that were shown,” said Riham Abdelaziz, a stay-at-home mom.

“As an Egyptian, some of the places seemed familiar to me, but for foreign tourists I don’t think it’s very clear.”

Other similar online initiatives, such as My Egypt Instagram page and the Live Love Egypt campaign, aim to revive tourism through creating an online community that shares various photos of Egypt.

“The goal of Live Love Egypt is to create a socially responsible community that is interested in boosting Egypt’s economy and tourism through authentic user-generated photos and videos of different parts of Egypt,” said Omar Talaat, the brainchild behind the campaign.

Another such initiative is @My.Egypt – a page founded by Seif Tamer, an Egyptian student at Charles University in Prague.

Tamer said that after spending time abroad he began to see Egypt through the eyes of foreigners and began to rediscover his love for his homeland.

Other Egyptians, however, used the hashtag to post images of what they perceived to be the ‘real’ Egypt – sharing photos of garbage-filled streets, slum areas, incidents of sexual harassment, and news about human rights abuses.

Even though the campaign targets the international market, it left a more significant impression on Egyptians, who were split between supporters and opponents.

“Everyone is taking pictures and sharing them, but we are sending them to each other. Is this really having an international impact? I highly doubt it,” Assistant Professor of Marketing and Associate Chair Dina Bassiouni told The Caravan.

She explained that any campaign will never show the negatives of the product being advertised, and how backlash is expected.

“A negative response is very common for all marketing campaigns. For any campaign there are three levels of cognitive responses. The first level is product oriented. I can either say that it is a great product or it is terrible, and that is what happened,” she said.

Bassiouni added that the second level of response is towards the source that created the ad – in this case, it is the Ministry of Tourism: “Some people supported it and said the ministry was trying to revive the industry, while others claimed it’s exploiting the people,” she explained.

The third level of response is towards the execution of the ad: “The ad is beautiful, it really is. But many responded to it saying this is not really Egypt,” said Bassiouni.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), 14.73 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010. This number fell to 10 million following the 2011 revolution.

As the number of tourists fell further – according to the Ministry of Tourism – the revenue dropped by 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2016.

This drastic decline led to many losing their jobs and plenty of touristic sites and resorts, especially Sharm el Sheikh, turning into ghost towns.

The ministry’s aim from the campaign is to attract more than 25 million tourists by 2020 and to double the tourism

revenue from $12 billion to $25 billion within the next six years.

Bassiouni also saw a number of issues with the ad, such as the incorrect choice of locations and lack of information provided to the viewers.

“They had police escorts through different locations that they were not allowed to go to. Some of the beaches where the ad was shot require you to a climb a mountain or a rock. Why did they film that? Why are they getting people excited about a place they cannot go to?” said Bassiouni.

She contrasted this campaign to others made in Greece, which do not only show the tourist spots, but also show the audience how to get to them. Egypt’s campaign, on the other hand, focused on showing deserted areas with no inhabitants or information on how to reach them, which gives false information.

“A lot of the [deserted areas] are places no one actually goes to because no one is allowed to. They are exaggerating something that is not there,” she added.

Some supporters of the campaign accused critics of not being nationalistic enough and playing a part in ruining Egypt’s international image. However, the Egyptian response is not going to have a drastic effect on the flow of tourists.

“Anyone with common sense who is going to travel anywhere is going to Google it. You will want to see what the sites are and try to avoid the dangerous areas,” Political Science Professor Amal Hamada told The Caravan. “Our clients are not stupid. They will do their research about Egypt.”

She further elaborated that the real threat to any campaign is what perception of Egypt the tourists go back to their countries with. Many tourists have complained about sexual harassment once they leave, which is more damaging to Egypt’s image than photos of slums and garbage.

This campaign, as well as many others, focused mainly on beach tourism while ignoring the variety of Ancient Egyptian monuments sprawled across the country.

In the case of the #ThisisEgypt video, the shots of the monuments are a mere five seconds while the remaining minute and 28 seconds are shot after shot of Egypt’s beaches. However, Hamada believes this could be related to issues of safety.

“Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada are safer and easier to maintain. They are small in size and the population is minimal. Unlike Luxor and Aswan, where it is more dangerous. They have more safety concerns and are more costly to maintain,” she explained.

Despite the campaigns attempting to portray Egypt as a perfect tourist destination, another major problem tourists face are the high prices, which play a significant role in harming Egypt’s image.

“In addition to advertisements, we need to have some sort of awareness. We need to have tourism behavior. If you go to Khan el Khalili for example, you will find price discrimination when it comes to prices for foreigners and Egyptians. We should capitalize on training the labor resources in a different mindset,” explained Chair of Economics Tarek Selim.

Another major problem lies with Egypt’s international image. In recent months, Egypt has come under fire for alleged human rights abuses and numerous terrorist attacks – it is constantly portrayed in international media as unsafe.

This has resulted in some countries, like the United Kingdom and Russia discouraging their citizens from visiting Egypt.

“The indicator is how many times Egypt is mentioned in a negative manner in the news. We have to look for the causes of the negative image and eliminate them. Some of those [causes] are the issues of human rights, so something has to be done,” said Political Science Professor Gamal Soltan.

Although social media can be used to promote tourism, it is a double-edged sword. While it can be utilized by the ministry to highlight Egypt’s positives, it is also a platform that provides foreigners with an insight on the negatives of the country.

Additional reporting done by Ahd Kotb and Mariam Mansour.