Specifically, and beyond the islands, Kataras mentioned a circuit with guaranteed departures and a Spanish-speaking guide through northern Greece, “the land of Alexander the Great .” It is a tour of cultural and historical interest that introduces the passenger to a lesser-known Greek landscape, marked by mountains and lakes. “We have just launched it and it is our bet for travelers to get a little out of the ordinary,” he concluded.

In turn, Nabil Taher, President and Founder of Diplomatic Travel Services (DTS), highlighted the recognition granted to the company in 2022 as the first receptive in Egypt for clients from Spain and Latin America. With offices in Cairo, Aswan, Luxor, Hurghada, in addition to the subsidiary DTS Dubai, Taher prioritizes, above all, personalized service. When asked what is the flagship product of DTS Egypt, Taher first pointed out the Egypt Dubai package and, as a novelty, the Egypt Turkey package.

“We have six daily flights between Istanbul and Cairo and one daily flight from Hurghada to Istanbul, with Turkish Airlines. So we do a very complete program in Egypt, with a cruise, with Cairo, with beach days in Hurghada and then the connection to Istanbul. It is a product that sells very well.”

Nabil Taher – DTS Egypt

In the case of DTS Dubai, The product manager of DTS, Damián Fuentes , explained that for many years the star product was the stopover in Dubai as a connection point to any other destination, “but fortunately this is changing,” especially after the pandemic. “More and more people are choosing Dubai as a single destination,” he said.

Today, our top products are for a minimum of six or seven nights. We have a nine-night product in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for fifteen-year-old girls or students that includes eight theme parks. We are aiming for that: for long stays and to replace Disney and Europe for groups of fifteen-year-old girls and for them to start considering Dubai as a unique destination.

Damian Fuentes – DTS Dubai

Middle East operates normally

One of the key takeaways from the panel was the assurance from operators that tourism in the Middle East is operating as normal. It was even revealed that several European airlines are scheduled to return to Israel by the end of this month and beginning of March – a fairly clear indicator that travel in this country is also beginning to normalise.

In the specific case of Greece, Italy, Turkey and Egypt, tourist operations have been carried out without any setbacks during all these months and the peace of mind of travellers in each of these destinations is more than proven and guaranteed. The impact was, however, at the level of cancellations and changes of itineraries, with much greater emphasis on Egypt and Turkey.

In this regard, Nabil Taher, president and founder of Diplomatic Travel Services (DTS Egypt) explained that, although there has been an impact on combined programs with the Holy Land, there has also been an increase in European travelers in the vacation segment to Egypt. The businessman emphasized that everything is in order in the destination and invited the local market to take charge of explaining the situation to passengers ; “we are behind to provide all the details,” he said.

Aslan Levanta, manager and founding partner of DMC Meridian Tours, recalled that Turkey is one of the safest countries in Europe in terms of crime statistics and invited people to reflect on the prejudices that often prevail in circumstances of conflict or political unrest, for example, the demonstrations that took place in many countries around the world over the situation in Gaza.

“Many people called me from Colombia, Argentina and Brazil to ask me what was happening in Turkey. We saw a demonstration on TV and it seems that Istanbul is in a very bad situation! However, these are demonstrations that took place all over the world. We are all human beings and we have prejudices and countries like Egypt and Turkey, because they are of Muslim origin, are more associated with certain conflicts , but the reality is that as individual countries we have nothing to do with it,” said the Turkish businessman.