'Follow Me To Egypt' Aims to Boost Tourism

It took Mohamed Ehab several hours to get the perfect shot. With his sister Randa and his Nikon D3300 in tow, Ebab found a good angle and then waited until the crowds at the Giza pyramids cleared for a moment. He then snapped the photo that won an international competition and inspired him to take more, all around the country, to bring the tourists back to Egypt. The 26-year-old photographer was chosen this month as the winner from among some 350 photos in a contest hosted by foap.com, a photography app where users can sell their photos to companies. The competition, called #FollowMeTo, was inspired by the hashtag's creator Murad Osmann, who snaps photos of his wife Natalia Zakharova as she leads him around the world's most stunning destinations to share with his 3.4 million Instagram followers. After Ehab won the competition and gained international attention, he decided he wasn't going to stop at Giza. Ehab went on to photograph a half dozen of Cairo's most beautiful attractions under the hashtag #FollowMeToEgypt on his Instagram account @mohamedehabphotographer. He now plans on going around the country to show potential visitors Egypt's famous sites, and to help them discover hidden gems. His project aims to further popularize the hashtag that was first used by the Instagram account followmetoegypt, which is run by another photographer who takes photos of his girlfriend leading him around the country. [caption id="attachment_326266" align="alignnone" width="620"] Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Cairo[/caption] "I think it's a new way of showing people sightseeing places and marketing tourism. I think it will take a long time for tourism to come back so we need to do a lot of projects and come up with new ideas. I will go to the places people don't know about or just read about, so it will be a new way to show them the place," Ehab says. "When people see the photos, that means it's safe because if it wasn't safe I wouldn't go there or take my sister." Ehab is currently studying in Denmark to be a commercial pilot and says that his friends in Copenhagen don't know many Egyptian cities outside of the Red Sea resorts. His project aims to show foreigners Alexandria, the waterfalls of Fayoum, sandboarding in the dunes and other lesser-known vacation ideas. Ehab says the tourism ministry should focus more on social media for marketing, and wants to get them and some sponsors on board to support his project and take it across Egypt. The main goal is to increase tourism and to make the #FollowMeToEgypt hashtag more popular on Instagram so visitors use it in their vacation photos, Ehab says. His account now has some 4.8k followers. [caption id="attachment_326271" align="alignnone" width="620"] Muhammad Ali Palace, Cairo[/caption] The Cairo native first got interested in photography three years ago, when he took photos with his mobile and uploaded them to Instagram for his family and friends. Ehab got a professional camera for his birthday and now uses it to wander around Copenhagen in his spare time, photographing anything that catches his attention. "It makes me happy when I get a good photo, and I can spend an hour trying to get a good angle," Ehab says. "I learned that I have to be creative and not take just a regular photo that anyone can take on their phone. [caption id="attachment_326267" align="alignnone" width="620"] The Nile River in Cairo[/caption] [caption id="attachment_326270" align="alignnone" width="620"] The Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Cairo[/caption] If I just take a regular photos of some flowers, nobody will look at it because it's everywhere. It's also the same if I take a photo of the pyramids. Everybody already knows what they look like. But now it's a new idea." [caption id="attachment_326268" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photographer Mohamed Ehab and sister Randa[/caption] All photos courtesy of Mohamed Ehab