From Visionary Upstart Innovators to Established Market Leaders – the Story of Egypt Elite

John Navarre

Founder & CEO of Egypt Elite

John Navarre is a Spanish-American entrepreneur and businessman who has been involved with Egypt for nearly 25 years. John moved to Egypt for the first time in 2003 when he attended the American University in Cairo to study Arabic language and Middle Eastern culture. After these formative years at AUC, he went on to receive a Bachelor’s in International Studies from the University of South Carolina and a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of North Georgia, after which he was admitted to and spent several more years as a PhD candidate before deciding that research and academia were not how he wanted to spend the next several decades.

In 2012, John moved back to Egypt and began working in the tourism industry. With the turmoil of the Egyptian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring still ongoing, he thought that this would still be a slow time for Egypt’s tourism industry and that he’d be able to get his feet wet and learn the business on the ground while no one else was crazy enough to come to the Middle East. That assumption, however, proved to be incredibly wrong. Despite the ongoing revolution(s), inbound tourism to Egypt bounced back quicker than anyone could imagine, and that slow first year to learn the ropes that he had imagined turned into a trial by fire.

But in addition to being highly educational and informative, those chaotic early years also revealed many of the pathologies that plagued Egypt’s tourism industry and often frustrated — and sometimes ruined — the trips of visitors who had waited a lifetime to come see the wonders of this timeless place. Convinced that there were better and more ethical ways to conduct business, to deliver greater value than guests expected, to protect and shield visitors from scams, and to support and uplift local staff by making them part of a team that they could be proud of, John created a new model for a hybrid travel company and tour operator and called it Egypt Elite.

Today, Egypt Elite is the top Western-led travel company in Egypt and focuses on arranging and hosting upscale private travel within Egypt for individuals, couples, families, friends, and groups who want to enjoy their trip of a lifetime to Egypt without the hassle normally associated with travel to and around this region.

John is still very active in the daily operations and management of Egypt Elite. For the past ten years, he has split his time between his primary home in southern Spain and his secondary home and office in Cairo, Egypt. He is a dual citizen of both Spain and the United States, and speaks English, Spanish, and Egyptian Arabic. When he’s not in Egypt overseeing operations and spending time with guests, he can be found reading historical non-fiction, writing about travel, spending time with his dog, or working remotely from one of his other favorite cities of Istanbul, Damascus, or Amman.