Abstract
Motives: The Holy Family Trail in Egypt consists of twenty-five sacred sites across eight governorates, yet it operates more as a series of disconnected religious stops than as a coherent cultural heritage trail. Despite Papal endorsement and stretching across different bioclimatic zones ranging from Delta wetlands to Saharan caves, the Holy Family trail continues to receive limited scholarly attention and fragmented governmental support that is often confined to small-scale infrastructure improvements. Stakeholders promote differing development visions without any mechanism to align brand identity with reputation management. This disconnect has expanded the gap between policy ambitions and ground-level implementation. Recognising tourism trails as dynamic urban heritage infrastructures that include sequential narratives, not merely connected attractions, this study addresses the need to transform fragmented assets into a competitive cultural tourism ecosystem.
Aim: The study develops a strategic destination management framework through a dual-matrix analytical method, including the Corporate Brand Identity Matrix (CBIM) and the Corporate Brand Identity and Reputation Matrix (CBIRM). A five-round Delphi process, conducted between December 2023 and February 2024, engaged twenty-three experts representing different stakeholder groups (e.g., cultural experts, tourism industry professionals, local community, and government officials) through iterative rounds were designed to build strategic coherence. The core aim of this study is to bridge the persistent execution gap by formalising a stakeholder-led brand identity while integrating reputation-governance mechanisms capable of translating the Holy Family trail heritage potential into sustainable tourism development.
Results: Participants reached a strong consensus despite differing perspectives. They identified the enhancement of Unique Selling Propositions as the most effective mechanism for improving recognition of the trail. Three competitive strengths were highlighted as central: its formal designation as a Christian pilgrimage route, the bioclimatic landscapes diversity, and its grounding in local community life. The resulting matrix-based framework provides policymakers with practical guidance for repositioning the trail within international tourism networks and offers a transferable methodology for managing heritage trails in other emerging economies.