World Travel Market (WTM) London has announced the Egyptian Tourism Authority as its Premier Partner for 2026.
Following the exclusive launch in London of Ramses and the Pharaoh’s Gold: The Exhibition, an official signing ceremony was held on 26 February at Neon at Battersea Power Station. The partnership was formally confirmed by Chris Carter-Chapman, event director at WTM London; Ahmed Youssef, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Authority; and Sherif Fathi, Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities.
Egypt had a presence at every WTM London event since the inaugural edition in 1980.
In recent years the authority has significantly strengthened its presence at WTM London. Its stand space expanded by more than 20% between 2023 and 2024, followed by a further increase of over 50% in 2025. The 2025 stand welcomed 90 co‑exhibitors, underlining the event’s growing importance as a platform for collaboration and industry engagement.
Negotiations for an even larger presence in 2026 are under way and a growing number of travel suppliers exhibit independently of the tourism authority. Last year flag carrier EgyptAir had its own stand with a number of hotel chains, resorts and destination management companies based in Egypt also exhibiting on the show floor.
Egypt’s growing presence at WTM London and its Premier Partner status reflects builds on other successful initiatives to increase its inbound tourism numbers. In 2025, the government confirmed it welcomed nearly 19m international visitors, a 21% increase on 2024 and well above the global growth rate of 5%.
Egypt is served by flights from nearly 200 cities around the globe and the authorities say they are aiming to achieve 30m tourist arrivals by 2031. The
Ahmed Youssef, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Authority, said: “WTM London has been instrumental in helping Egypt to become one of the world’s most popular outbound leisure destinations. We intend to take full advantage of our Premier Partner status to promote the world’s oldest tourism destination to an even wider range of source markets and traveller types”.
Chris Carter-Chapman added: “We are delighted to have secured the Egyptian Tourism Authority as our 2026 Premier Partner this early in the planning cycle. We’re excited to work with them over the coming months as they seek to achieve their growth aims and propel them towards their target of 30m arrivals by 2031.”
WTM London 2026 takes place 3-5 November at Excel London.
Photo, courtesy of WTM: Ahmed Youssef, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Authority; Sherif Fathi, Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities and Chris Carter-Chapman, event director at WTM London
