An Italian investor’s mission to save Sharm El-Sheikh

Ernesto Preatoni, owner of Domina Coral Bay Resort and one of the leading foreign investors in Sharm El-Sheikh, has embarked on a new initiative to revive Italian tourism. Preatoni had previously played a prominent role in promoting the resort city, annually bringing nearly half a million Italian tourists, which has now dropped to only 11,000.

Today, “the inventor of Sharm El-Sheikh”, as they call him in Italy, came with a promising initiative that would see tourists return to the city on the verge of becoming deserted. He intends to organise eight flights, carrying about 180 different kinds of visitors, including tourists, investors, journalists, press, and politicians, to spend an entire week in Sharm El-Sheikh─at his own expense. The first trip will be on 2 October and the last trip on 28 November, making it the biggest privately funded promotion campaign in the history of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Preatoni described his campaign saying: “Our aim is not to only target regular tourists, but to attract the rich.” He explained that the “initiative aims to invite wealthy Italians who are known for their love of travel. Preatoni aims to organise airline trips directly from the cities of Nablus and Bari to Sharm El-Sheikh.”