Sharm el-Sheikh, for 40 years the favorite of Italians

The Sheikh's Bay. This means in the translation from Arabic Sharm el-Skeikh, one of the favorite medium-range destinations for 40 years by Italians. Yes, for 40 years. Because before that, the pearl of the Red Sea was nothing more than a small fishing settlement nestled between the crystal clear waters and desert of the Sinai Peninsula. It is since 1982 that the Egyptian government begins to invest in a tourism development that has changed and continues to change its appearance constantly and completely.
Very little remains of the fishing village (even the old Sharm is now just a swarm of shops and souvenir shops), while hotels and resorts for all budgets multiply along the coast, allowing the town to know no crisis and to overcome dark moments (such as the terrorist attacks of 2005 that caused a sharp slowdown in arrivals and the most recent lockdown).
Last year, with the post-pandemic recovery, Sharm recorded almost 2 million presences (1 million 893 thousand arrivals at the airport), in the first five months of 2023 it was already exceeded one million. The Russians are the masters: almost half a million in 2022 (454 thousand presences), 270 thousand in 2023. Italians are the second nationality for absolute numbers: 278 thousand in 2022, 155 thousand since the beginning of this year.
British, Belgian, German, Norwegian and former Soviet republics, among other nationalities fond of the golden beaches and coral reef of Sharm.
"The pleasant climate all year round, the possibility of reaching it in 4 hours, the extraordinary sea, the affordable price even for families explain the constant success over time of Sharm el-Sheikh among Italians", explains Michele Matone, product manager of the Nicolaus group. The Apulian family company of brothers Giuseppe and Roberto Pagliara, which focuses a lot on the Red Sea (also considering Marsa Alam), has brought the Valtur brand back to Sharm el-Skeikh with the Reef Oasis Blue Bay, in Pasha Bay (with direct access to the coral reef), and with the Albatros Laguna Vista (overlooking the Caribbean bay of Nabq and more suitable for families), in addition to the resorts that belong to Nicolaus, with about 10 thousand presences last year "and we aim to double this year", adds Matone. "The concept of the village is very different from the past - explains Sara Prontera Marketing Director of the group -: if before we lived only inside, today there is an exchange with what is outside".
Even in Sharm you go to the discovery of Naama Bay, with its promenade decorated with rows of palm trees, full of bars and restaurants; the Ras Muhammad National Park, one of the favorite destinations for diving enthusiasts thanks to the marine fauna and flora that crowd the coral reefs of Shark and Yolanda and the surroundings of the Thistlegorm wreck; you go to the desert for a typical Bedouin dinner cooked in the sand enlivened by a belly dancing show or you spend an evening at the spectacular Farsha Mountain Lounge, a bar set in an inlet overlooking the sea, to feel a bit pirates for a night.