São Paulo – Tourism agency Promo Trend Travel introduced a new Arab destination to its portfolio at WTM Latin America, which wrapped up on Wednesday (16) in São Paulo: Saudi Arabia. The country eased entry for tourists beyond religious travel two years ago as part of its economic diversification strategy.
According to Promo Trend Travel CEO Medhat Hammam, the company is 22 years old and based in Egypt, but opened an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, three years ago to promote tourism in the country. He says Arab destinations like Egypt, Jordan, and United Arab Emirates’ Dubia, are popular among Brazilians. “Now we’re trying to encourage Brazilians to visit the new destination, Saudi Arabia,” he says.
The six-night travel package includes visits to Riyadh, the coastal city of Jeddah on the Red Sea, the desert city of AlUla, and the holy city of Medina. Mecca remains a destination exclusively for followers of Islam.
Hammam says the most suitable packages for Brazilians are those that combine Saudi Arabia with another destination—mainly Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, or even Turkey’s Istanbul, which, like Qatar and the UAE, offers direct flights to Brazil. These packages typically include six nights in Saudi Arabia and three nights in the additional destination.
According to Hammam, although Brazilians are showing strong interest in Saudi Arabia, the number of visitors from Brazil is still relatively small—around 2,000 per year—behind major source markets like France, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Saudi Arabia receives 30 million visitors annually, most of them pilgrims.
Egypt agency aims to welcome more Brazilians
Another leisure destination, Egypt is entering a new phase in its relationship with Brazilian visitors. According to Attia Yamany, founder and CEO of Dunas Travel, 9,000 Brazilians travel through his agency, which aims to double the number of Brazilian clients traveling to Egypt by 2025. The company has been operating in the Brazilian market since 2017.
According to Yamany, Brazil is the second-largest market for his business, after Spain. However, for Egypt, Brazil is still a small source of tourists. Of the 15.3 million foreigners who visited Egypt in 2024, 50,000 were Brazilians. The main sources of visitors are Germany, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.
Yamany hopes for a direct flight between the two countries to boost tourist exchange. At the end of 2023, a Spanish company operated charter flights with EgyptAir between Cairo and São Paulo, but the route was soon suspended.
“Our dream is to have a direct flight with Brazil,” he says, recalling the route that EgyptAir once operated. “But I believe that at some point we will have this flight,” he adds. Brazilians are interested in cultural tours in Egypt, such as visiting monuments, pyramids, and the cities of Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan.
Read more:
Saudi Arabia celebrates relations with Brazil
Egypt grows as Brazil’s trade partner
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
