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The Curation by Nour Hassan
The Curation, formerly Radical Contemporary, is a Digital Curator and Podcast based between Cairo, Dubai & Jeddah. We curate everything from art, fashion, and design, to culture, wellness and tech to present you with only the best brands, founders, products and pioneers.
The Curation by Nour Hassan
Ibrahim El Missiri: Beyond the Peninsula Transforming Soma Bay
From construction engineer to environmental researcher to destination visionary — Ibrahim El Missiri's career path defies conventional trajectories while offering profound insights into what makes extraordinary destinations thrive. As the CEO of Soma Bay Red Sea, El Missiri worked on the transformation of a stunning Red Sea peninsula into one of Egypt's premier destinations through strategic vision, innovative placemaking, and a deep understanding of both social and financial capital.
The conversation reveals how El Missiri's diverse background shaped his approach to development. His early work on iconic projects like the Four Seasons Giza laid a foundation in construction, while his environmental studies funded by a hard-won British scholarship (after three years of rejection) instilled principles of sustainability. His master's degree in Built Environment from UCL introduced him to placemaking concepts that would later define Soma Bay's distinctive character.
What truly distinguishes this interview is El Missiri's fascinating perspective on "social capital" versus "financial capital" and how relationships form the true currency of success in Egyptian business. After years working internationally, he recognized that maintaining strong local networks was crucial, explaining his decision to return to Egypt despite promising opportunities abroad in companies such as Dubai World and Expo 2020.
Today, Soma Bay hosts music festivals and international events such as Narrative PR Summit, bring ing together indouals form across regions and disciplines to come together on the Egyptian Red Sea peninsula of Soma Bay.
Action. Welcome to the Curation a show for the culturally curious. This is your host, noor Hassan. Each week, I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art, fashion, design, culture, luxury, wellness, tech and more. This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas, untold stories and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world. There's no gatekeeping here, so sit back, tune in and let's discover only the best together.
Speaker 1:In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ibrahim El-Mesedi, who is the CEO of Red Sea destination Soma Bay. Soma Bay is one of Egypt's top destinations. We spoke about Ibrahim's career, with twists and turns and plot twists that brought him from London to Dubai and then finally to the Red Sea. We spoke about how Soma Bay started off as one of the region's most beautiful peninsulas and is now considered a top regional destination, hosting music festivals, incredible events and, of course, the Narrative PR Summit, which is Lamia Kamel's project, a guest we've also had on the podcast and one of our top listen to episodes. This episode is a lesson on entrepreneurship, resilience, perseverance, education and so much more. I absolutely loved this interview and I think you will get so much out of it. So, without further ado, this is my conversation with Ibrahim. Okay, so right now I'm speaking with Ibrahim Al-Maseri, the CEO of Soma Bay, and, as I said, I've been doing this interview for a year now, so I'm really honored to have you on the Curation podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me on board, Dani.
Speaker 1:It's my honor. I'm really excited, honestly to be here at the incredible showroom in Capital where you have such a nice setup over here. I want to talk a little bit about you. On the Curation, we start with a question and ask all the guests what's your morning routine, ibrahim? This is the first question for me, because my audience generally likes to know successful people. What do they do in the morning?
Speaker 2:Well, most people have the beautiful. They wake up early and my morning routine is a bit simpler. Usually I wake up at 7 am and my kids are going to school, and then I'll have breakfast. Uh, not regular, but I'll probably every now and then walk the dog. Uh, I've got a nice docker amazing and and then just flick through my email enterprise. You know the regular stuff that's coming in. Check my calendar and then I'm off amazing.
Speaker 1:So um? Are you a coffee person? Do you usually have a coffee in the morning?
Speaker 2:things like that definitely okay, I like to have a. I drink a specific brand. It's actually a Nescafe, but it's a Nescafe espresso.
Speaker 1:Okay, please share they.
Speaker 2:Like details yeah it's Nescafe, have an instant espresso. Michel capsules, yes, which I really like the Arabica, that's my special coffee and then I'll. In terms of food, I always have A cheese omelet for the morning, amazing toast with orange juice, that's my daily breakfast very boring. I do it every day.
Speaker 1:I think you know honestly, repetition sometimes is really the key, and Lamia shared with us. For example, she likes to work out in the morning. Do you, do you like, prefer to work out at all, in the morning or in general?
Speaker 2:well in terms of working out, uh actually, uh, my wife gets a personal trainer amazing, so she's working out. I try to join her two three times a week. Usually we're working out. I want my the kids get on the bus between 7 and 8, sometimes it's 8 to 9. Yes, we do that and this has been a bit regular now for the past year and a half.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So we're focusing on that Great Okay. So I want to hear a little bit about your career before Soma Bay. You've been in real estate for so many years. Can you tell us a little bit more about the background before coming into Soma Bay and what brought you into the world of real estate?
Speaker 2:Okay, my career was all over the place. I'm a construction engineer by background. Yes. And then I quickly joined a construction company. It's called Bechtel, and I was working on the Four Seasons, giza which was a very nice job. It was the building. This was pre-Dubai, so that was the tower at least and it was a very unique project. Actually, I find it very weird. Our generation, all the leaders of the construction industry, most of them, graduated from that project. We were all working on one site. It was very unique.
Speaker 1:Iconic. It was something that is still iconic to this day.
Speaker 2:It's still iconic with the first mall. Actually, the back story is it was never a hotel, it was two residential towers, and then we had to. The one on the Nile was selling, the one on the zoo wasn't. And they converted it originally to a Ritz-Carlton. And then it converted again to a Four Seasons. And it opened as a Four Seasons and there are lots of stories about that project, Danny. And there are lots of stories about that project, Annie.
Speaker 2:We, actually we were digging and we bumped into the hippopotamus, the drainage of the hippo lagoon of Tazoo. Oh wow, we were drowned in stench, but we actually connected it to the treatment network. Amazing To me, it was a critical job, it started my career and it was really the number one construction companies in the world and and for me working with Bechtel at the time. It was, I think, the biggest contractor on the planet. It was a good start and then I left them.
Speaker 2:I joined Orascom for a year, very early days, and then I left and I said I'm not doing engineering. And I decided I wanted to be a ranger.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting for the career shift.
Speaker 2:And I decided I'm going to be an environmentalist and I'm going to study oceanography. And there was. The EU had set up a program in Egypt to develop the national parks of Egypt. There was no equipment, yet that wasn't there.
Speaker 2:Before all this, really there was nothing, yet there was nothing and they were still setting up like Ras Mohamed and stuff. I was like, wow, I'd like to do that and I got funding from the British government to go and live on an island in the Philippines, South China Sea, to learn about reefs and fish. And I wrote a paper how we can take that model and I would go to the EU and they'd give me an island in Hurghada. Incredible, so that was my first connection and I did that.
Speaker 1:That was the first touch point with her gata I will, I will, I will, sort of coming to this area.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, there's a, there's a previous touch point okay my one of my aunts. She was the, I think, one of the first female divers in egypt. Yeah, amazing in the 80s and, uh, she took me to this unique site called Sharman Naga, which happens to be just next to Soma Bay today. This was pre-Soma, pre-development in the Red Sea, and that was my very, very first touchpoint in the Hurghada region.
Speaker 1:How many years ago Bo.
Speaker 2:Zamen awiyal, you're very old, but the Hurghada and I came back to Egypt after my Philippines experience. And I went to the. They were setting up the WEAA, the environmental agency, and it was it became a government institute. The EU left and they told me sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was like I just quit my job. I went, I did this training, I'm coming.
Speaker 1:I'm going to set up they're not.
Speaker 2:You're not in this project anymore what did you do from there? I was very depressed, so I I decided to apply for a scholarship okay so I decided to give up my environmental dream. Uh, I was going to originally go to Miami and I applied for the British Shevening Scholarship. The government, gives the British government gives this scholarship every year and I applied for three years. I got rejected. Wow.
Speaker 2:And then I heard, after they told me the news, I'm not going to be doing the project of the national parks. I took my paperwork, I photocopiedied it, signed it in blue and I submitted it amazing so I was called in to the British embassy, a British council and I. I went in for the interview and it was the people who funded me for my Philippines experience.
Speaker 1:That that is so interesting, full circle.
Speaker 2:Full circle and the lady who paid for my training I had no money, but they gave me the money she was sat there. She was like what are you doing? I told her I sent you a report, thank you for your funding, but the government in Egypt doesn't want me. What do I do? Are you going to do environment? No, I want to study. What do I do? Are you going to do environment? No, I want to study. Go back to development. And this is where I started the shift to what's called built environment.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course, but at that time, all the fields and all these things, you're a pioneer. You're still a first mover in this area, right? I mean, there's still no one who's very involved in this area.
Speaker 2:There wasn't even the concept of developer, didn't exist. In Egypt, there were no compounds.
Speaker 1:This was the 90s but it's very interesting how the progression was very fast from then on, I believe yes, they decided to give me the scholarship because I didn't like it it's a lesson in perseverance. It's a lesson in perseverance three four years.
Speaker 2:So three years they tell me no. And then the time I didn't write the essay, they gave me but ibrahim to apply again wow I. I was like I I need to get out of here and it was it was sort of I need a solution, uh.
Speaker 1:So that's Amazing.
Speaker 2:It was sort of I need a solution. That's very inspiring, so I got accepted in UCL LA University College London and in the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Speaker 1:Incredible.
Speaker 2:And this was a new course called Built Environment I didn't even know what it was. So I went to the UK, I did my master's and it was and uh. So I went to the uk, I did my master's and it was mind-blowing yes we were what? Maybe some of I don't know the people who listen to your podcast, but germany was two countries right?
Speaker 1:yeah, a lot of people don't, yes, know that anymore. Yeah, but if he was germany.
Speaker 2:in east germany berlin was two cities of, so we were studying how to merge Berlin.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And this was the very early days of VR. Okay, and they were doing tests Like a student who wanted some extra cash and you get five pounds, so they test the machine on your head and you get seasick. And it was really weird, but we were trying to see how do you tie up the city and how do you? This is where I got introduced to the concept of placemaking.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, of course, and placemaking now is a huge buzzword in the industry. Years later, that's incredible. What did this entire degree really teach you about how the future of this industry was going to pan out?
Speaker 2:Well, it was all about. How do people relate to places? How placemaking is the definition? Why do you go to these cities? How do you walk around the city Distances? We never thought about these when we were studying engineering. It was civil.
Speaker 1:Build the building.
Speaker 2:How everything interconnects, how people interact with spaces, how do you identify landmarks, walkable distances, very early themes that we were looking at and uh. So when I came back I was like, okay, that's really cool, but I, I got, I got to work on a project which was uh, there was a project that's being developed port galip in marsalam a kid and it was done by the kuwaitis and uh. So I went there and I lived in Kusir.
Speaker 1:So that was my return to the Red Sea so would you say, you're not exactly a city person like that.
Speaker 2:I love the city. Yeah, I've always lived in cities on the contrary, but I always had this attachment to the Red Sea yes and actually even more so to Sinai yeah and my daughter's name is Sina.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:I love that name, I mean that's how I got.
Speaker 1:Many people will take that name, but actually I see that there's a pattern and you return regularly to the Red Sea area. There's a constant return. Right now, what came next?
Speaker 2:Nothing I went back to. It was very interesting when I was in Kosea. That was my first the first time I go to Soma Bay, actually wow. I heard this place had opened so. Soma Bay actually opened in 98. I was there in 2000 okay and so I went to check it out and there was just two hotels Sheraton and Robbins yes and it was because we were bored.
Speaker 2:We were bored, we were roaming around the Red Sea and the Red Sea is very, very interesting and then I decided that I want to leave and I got an opportunity to go back to the UK. I moved to the UK in 2001. And I stayed there all the way to 2006. Amazing, and I was working on high-speed trains, which was an incredible experience very, very cool experience at eurostar, the second stage.
Speaker 2:So we were moving the station from waterloo uh to uh, st pancras in the north of london. That was cool. I worked on doha airport. I worked on um uh, there was something called the west coast. So the the the high-speed train from uh, it was a high-speed, it was semi-high-speed from London to Glasgow Amazing, this was sort of what I was doing. And then I moved to Abu Dhabi in 2006. I was working on a port project there and then I had sort of a turning point, which was my father passed away and I felt I needed to go back to Egypt.
Speaker 1:Okay, it was a feeling, not a job opportunity. You wanted to go back to Egypt. I wanted to go back.
Speaker 2:I was always conscious when my because my dad, I was telling you he worked in Saudi and the UAE. And he returned on retirement. Okay, and at that time, the relationships he had with his friends became distant. He's always in touch, but not really.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so he wasn't very happy. When he came back and I spoke, I was speaking to my mentor. Uh, I had a great mentor called jeremy beaton he's the guy who took me to to london wow and that's a whole story on its own. Um, but? And he was telling me look, if you're gonna make any serious move, you need to do before you're 40 oh really oh no yeah, type guys we have uh 10 years, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I said that once on a podcast and. I got like hate mail. That's what he said. I think it wasn't about the age, it was about how how you know the way these kind of mentors work. They don't want to tell you the decision right, they want you to come to the decision. So he was trying to push me. I was like 38 at the time. He's like make a freaking decision.
Speaker 2:you know, it was like I think that's where the number came from, and so I said okay, I'm going to come back to rebuild my relationships with my friends and everybody rebuild my relationships with my friends and everybody. I used to come to Egypt like every three months to really establish long-term relations, and Masr is the kind of community where it's. I made up this term. Yeah, I think there are two kinds of capital. Okay. There's financial capital and there's social capital.
Speaker 1:Oh interesting, omri Masmatahani, this is a trademark patent, uh so in places.
Speaker 2:It's everywhere in the world, but in a place like egypt, your social capital is probably stronger and more important than your financial capital I 100 agree it's your club if you were in a club. It's your school, it's your uni, it's where you work.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And these relationships that you establish are the ones that are going to open doors for you forever and ever. For sure, but when I was abroad and I built all those relations around the world, I was eroding my Egyptian social capital.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so coming back was important. That's sort of how it took place in my head.
Speaker 1:I love this idea. I think Begadda my audience would really benefit from it, because there's a lot of expats and they are scared of Al-Fiqra. But, ana Aiza Arif, I want to know how you got to Soma bay, because I think it will really inspire a lot of people to understand and know.
Speaker 2:The biggest and best opportunities are not always abroad, you know yeah, well it's, and uh, when I let, when I decided to come back to egypt, I moved into development and it was to me was the dream job. I got hired by dubai world. They were the thing they were doing the palms and they were said you know, come and be in charge of development in north africa yes, wow, dream literally, yeah and uh.
Speaker 2:So I joined in june 08. Amazing september 08 world financial crisis lost my job. Oh so, after 15 years working for a company, so that's really your fear barrier, right? I don't want to leave my job because it might not go well, it didn't okay but I have to say it took by the time I sort of moved out to get it. It took me like six months, okay, and then I stayed at home for like three, another three months months.
Speaker 1:You were in Egypt, I was in Egypt. This was 2008.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I went back to Egypt, got the perfect job. Right Lost my job in six months. Wow. Okay, and let's say it was out of hand. But I had learned about real estate development and from the Emiratis, and they're very good at it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so I was going to hand over documentation in a hotel in the Dubai Marina. I was sitting there over breakfast and someone walks in a friend of mine from uni. Okay.
Speaker 2:Totally random and it's like what are you doing here? Yeah, it was like 20, it was like 10 years later. Uh, he's like we just acquired a company in egypt. You want to come work with us, so why not? I just lost my job and and uh and I joined. This was the beginning of the acquisition of Tableton, so they were still more of a government entity and we created an amazing team.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:And we helped transform that company. This is pre the current Medina of Egypt stage and I did four years there and then at a certain point I felt there was no growth opportunity. After four years I thought I'd done enough.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:It wasn't clicking with the owners at the time, and again, I was on a trip in Dubai. I don't know why it's always Dubai.
Speaker 1:For a lot of people it's interesting.
Speaker 2:And I bumped into another friend.
Speaker 2:So this is how it comes. And he's like what are you doing? I'm like I'm done, I think I did a lot with MNHD and looking for another job. So he's like, well, you took this company and you transformed it. I was like, yeah. So he's like I, you took this company and you transformed it. I was like, yeah. So he's like I have another mess for you, oh, wow. So I'm like so I'm the guy who has to figure out the mess. Like we have this old company which was Soma Bay, started in 91. And it's a bit of a mess. Why don't you go help us out? Oh, wow, and that was it. And I was going to help them out for three months, really, and it was post-revolution, so there was a lot of problems with land documentation.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:Like this Helped them out. The three months, the year ended, and then I quit.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is a plot twist, okay.
Speaker 2:So, because it was we rescued the land.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But at the time there no uh determination to push things forward yes yes and uh, and so I left and I went back to dubai. Oh, wow and uh, I worked with a company that was bidding for expo oh, of course yeah, so we bid for expo. We won expo amazing and uh worked there for like a year and then the same guy called me up and he said okay, we solved our problems. You want to take over and lead the company the first time?
Speaker 2:I wasn't yes, yes, yes so I said, yeah, let's give it a shot. And that's how I joined Soma Bay and transformed Soma Bay that was the beginning, yeah, that was the think.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I think this is one of the most interesting stories I've heard. It's so, so fascinating. I thought of what was like when you first came to Soma Bay. What was the vision for Soma Bay, because I mean, the amount of transformation that's happened in the past couple of years is astounding. Basaraha and we'll get into just all of the events that happened there, including narrative summit just it's become a real hub in I would say not. I mean, what a decade.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, decades yeah took a lot, yeah, but I mean still for for a destination of that size incredible it takes time. Um, we'll see it's, it's, it's a, it's a story of, I would say, stages.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So the first stage was we need to solve the problem. Tourism was really suffering in Egypt yeah, financially and everything Of course. Hotel assets were, their status was eroded and there was no real estate. Yeah, we weren't Guna. Guna had Lissa, Guna had. I mean, we started nearly the same time as Guna by the way, yes, yes. But we took the tangent of hotels. Pre-my time. It was all about building those fancy hotels.
Speaker 1:Right, so we have Luxury hotels.
Speaker 2:Robinson, sheraton, cascades, we weren't doing real estate. Yeah. And I came with the real estate experience from MNHD and from Dubai World. And how do you start building that? And you have to keep in mind we're an hour further south. The distance between us and Guna is the distance between Atamea and Sukhna.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, a lot of people feel like it's more, but it is an hour.
Speaker 2:It's 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Oh, exactly.
Speaker 2:But I mean we're in a different zone. Yeah definitely we're the southernmost real estate developer in Egypt, I'd say.
Speaker 1:Incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're. We had to realize that we're more frontier, but we had two fantastic points. Number one I think Somabay has the best land plot in Egypt. It's a peninsula. A lot of people don't realize that we have our own peninsula. Wow.
Speaker 1:Okay, there are a lot of people don't realize that we have our own peninsula. Wow, okay, I feel like there are a lot of people who don't grasp how unique that is. It's a really hard thing to find. It's a peninsula.
Speaker 2:It doesn't exist. We are the Ras Mohamed of the Hurghada side, right, exactly. That was very, very unique. We have our own dive site and we have a beach yes you need that. That's it. You don't need a boat in Soma any for now. They have this pristine sandy beach and it's a bit of the Sahel experience on the.
Speaker 1:Red Sea yes, which is different to everything else which is what people crave, the north coast, yani, people crave it throughout the year, but they don't find it throughout the year. For who would I in F it throughout the year? So this is the idea that you can be in Soma throughout the year. Yeah. And so you brought in the idea let's provide people with compounds, let's provide people with developments, not just hotels. Let's make it more than that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:More than just like a luxury destination where you think of going on vacation. Your vision was people can live here, right?
Speaker 2:Definitely where you think of going on vacation. Your vision was people can live here, so definitely. But so there was another thing, and I was there when guna was starting yes yes, and I missed out. I was too young, I didn't have money. It was like, yeah, I couldn't afford it and in a way, I thought my generation and my friends and I were all living all over the world. We used to actually meet up in Guna definitely for Easter, but we wanted a place where we'd all huddle and we actually couldn't afford Guna.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was it. Yet we had this plot of land which was further south. We could afford it, and actually we. It's a nice plot, it is, for. That's sort of how it happens. You know, there used to be something called google circles. Didn't succeed, but google circles was built on the notion of, and every person is connected to a circle and these circles sort of are concentric.
Speaker 1:And then if you get a series, of people, then it will all connect and it's not enough to pick it in six degrees of separation, something like that and so that's how it sort of worked and evolved.
Speaker 2:And then we started slowly introducing the Rezi concept. But we wanted it to be different and we felt that our edge was going to be design, yes. So we wanted to come up with something striking, and that's where we came up with the concept of the lodge.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've seen that.
Speaker 1:Yes, looking at it, look, you know something that's. That's an innovation, though, and this gets boring and people have different tastes. Yeah, for the lodge, and I felt you also brought this creative aspect to destinations, and not just in, uh, not just in the way you communicate, but in the marketing and the images and the photography then. So my baby became famous for those, the images that are behind us, which is the water, the sunsets yeah, all of this brought you to becoming a destination where people will go for a race, where people will go for a summit. Um, so with this I want to get into how did you start hosting these large-scale events like narrative summit?
Speaker 1:well, originally and bringing people back to soma bay.
Speaker 2:We we started thinking okay, why would people come? Yeah yeah and uh and we. We started with music, so we wanted to do something different yes uh, we started getting some of the nostalgic bands. Yeah, we had the something called the dire straits experience. We got ace of bass, we got any, a lot of oldies and it was interesting, it was attracting a certain crowd.
Speaker 2:So people yanni, look, if someone is going to drive four and a half hours yes, then book a hotel to listen to a band that was interesting, so that had a lot of power and we focused on that and then we went on. Okay, what about that? We create a strategy whereby the Red Sea becomes the destination of choice for the normal holidays like the the. Eid, the Easter and New Year's.
Speaker 1:We don't have to go to Egypt, we don't have to travel to Egypt. You have these large events.
Speaker 2:In the Red Sea.
Speaker 1:Driving distance.
Speaker 2:By the way, people in the past used to party New Year's in Cairo. That's what we used to do. People used to go to villas and have parties. That's how it Nobody used to do. Yes, there are people who moved to a villa and do parties. Right, that's how it Nobody used to go to the Red Sea for New Year's.
Speaker 1:Interesting, and now it is the place to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it happens not just here. Now it's become Us Ahl al-Hashish, right Guna, that's the go-to destination 100% New. Year's was actually low season for Red Sea.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's really interesting. Now it's become high season.
Speaker 2:Ghariba with Eid as well. It's a strategy and Eid.
Speaker 1:Eid, everyone, everyone in Eid. Their first option is like why would I travel abroad and why not just go to the Red Sea?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we slowly worked these strategies. These are things that didn't just happen, by the way just happened, by the way.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we used to coordinate.
Speaker 2:Okay, that and I is out of by it's not by coincidence, no, it was by by the way. A lot of people think it just happened it was all by design. Yes, and there was a lot of collaboration can feed uh the guy in charge of guna at the time of course and he was a colleague from ac and we talked about it, uh, and we were talking about how do we start creating those events and not stepping on each other's toes.
Speaker 1:Interesting. This is really important because I think, being collaborative in this part, it creates an entire region as a destination, not just one place. And then therefore you have I mean, I know so many people who stay in Soma Bay, for example, and then hop into Guna, relax, okay. So now you have a destination, you brought all of this experience and you created something that is one of the biggest destinations in the region now Soma Bay. So I want to talk now about Narrative Summit, because I think it's really interesting to host a pr summit at soma bay. What made you decide that this was the place to host it and have this summit there? Because it's bringing people from all industries look we.
Speaker 2:We have a very long-standing relationship with uh both lamia camel and ah Ahmed Abid. Rmc.
Speaker 2:Ahmed was the person who we worked with on all those in the early days, the concerts and the music and the events, and so we were always brainstorming about what do you do, what do you bring, and Lamia had her narrative which she had run a few years earlier and she was seeking for a destination that will host yes and uh, and I was like you know what? Uh, this aligns with our vision. We are trying to change the way people approach destinations okay, you know development in egypt was all about resorts on the beach right.
Speaker 2:Yes. What we call sun and fun.
Speaker 1:Sun and fun. I love that. That's what the market's about. That was really the only way for a very long time.
Speaker 2:You go in the morning early, put your foot on the sun. That was it. It wasn't about destinations.
Speaker 2:Guna of course, led the way with destinations, but it was like Egypt needs a multitude of destinations 100% destinations but it was like egypt needs a multitude of destinations 100 and and so we were looking for our niche. And soma bay has dna of a different kind of destination, a destination that you need. Our different design it's built on sustainability. Uh, we're developing the first global sports hub in Egypt and now we're hosting all sorts of events and things that are happening, and Egypt was suffering from the big tourism problems that we were having.
Speaker 2:So, okay, let's talk about a new narrative for Egypt, that idea aligned with us, because I believe Soma Bay is a new narrative in terms of what is a destination? Where do you want to live? We want to make it a year-round destination that is conscious about all the things we talk about but we don't do Exactly Really thinking about the environment. When we started getting our licenses, it was quite interesting. The environmental authorities always looked at the developer as a violator. We went to them and we said police us. Maybe that came from my ranger days I changed the perspective completely.
Speaker 1:I made it help us, help you basically.
Speaker 1:And let's work together. This is the last question I have for you, because I could really talk to you for hours, so we'll need a part two. Okay, so nation branding I think essentially the work that you've been doing with Soma Bay and kind of creating a destination and bringing in something like first, music and art and fashion and luxury, and then narrative summit, which is a PR summit, bringing in people from all of those fields. This is a form of nation branding, kind of reshaping the way people see Egypt as a destination. I feel like you said or the pyramids, and that's about it, even though there's so much more. So was the nation branding part of what you were thinking about, going back to all of your experience?
Speaker 2:definitely look, yeah, this is the problem for egypt. Believe it or not, people still think, I don't know, we live in tents or in pyramids and we ride camels until today and that's the perception of a lot of people, unfortunately. We talk to each other so we think everybody knows, but they don't. And the best experience I always have is when I get a guest or a client who comes and says I've come to Somabay and I haven't even seen the pyramids, and like, wow, this is Egypt.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I would fly straight in and people don't even think it's part of Egypt and no, we are part of Egypt.
Speaker 2:And, by the way, sahel is incredible and Cairo is transformed, and look at how life now in Egypt is totally different to 20 years ago, of course. So how do we bring that narrative abroad? How do we take any? Let's think okay is, egypt has a very strong brand, it's the any we were talking. I was talking with Lamia. We have the pyramids, guys, every kid born on planet Earth has the pyramids in their textbook, so the 8, 9 billion people on the planet know us. There's no other country like this, by the way.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 2:But we cannot be locked into the pyramids.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Egypt is so much different. We're I don't know now 115 million people. Probably there's 10, 15 million abroad. We're one of the biggest nations on earth. Everywhere you go there's Egyptians. Yes. And they're now succeeding in all sorts of fields and we have something to say in all the fields marketing, advertising, uh, whatever, pr and destinations amazing.
Speaker 1:I honestly think you wrapped it up for us perfectly and I'm really excited for a narrative summit to come to soma bay, with all of the incredible international individuals that are going to be joining.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much, ibrahim, for your time thank you for having me and and looking forward to a great summit.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. Don't forget to follow at the Curation Pod on Instagram, as well as at Soma Bay, red Sea, to stay updated on all of the upcoming events, podcast episodes and more, and I'll see you on our next episode.