ROME -- In the wake of the murder of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, the Egyptian tourism minister has cancelled a scheduled visit to Milan for the annual BIT international tourism trade fair at which he had been due to unveil new Egyptian security measures aimed at encouraging tourism in the country, officials said.

 The cancellation comes at a time of increased tension on the relationship between Italy and Egypt following the assassination of 28-year old Italian Cambridge student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found last week in Cairo. The Egyptian security services are heavily suspected for involvement in what has been reported as a politically motivated murder and possible torture.

 Tourism minister Hisham Zaazou had been scheduled to announce the new measures at the BIT fair on Thursday, but wrote in a press release on Wednesday that due to "sudden institutional requirements" he would be unable to make it. The talk will be given instead by director of the Egyptian Tourism Authority in Italy, Emad Fathy.

 The announcements to be made included the introduction of rigorous new security measures at the popular Hurgada and Sharm El-Sheikh resorts as well as at airports in order to ensure the safeguarding of tourists.

 Speaking of the alarming decline of the numbers of tourists visiting Egypt in recent years due to security scares, Fathy admitted that "in this last week the situation has got even worse." He spoke of the worryingly low numbers of Italian tourists, once one of Egypt's biggest markets, saying that there between Feb. 6 and now there have been barely 1000 Italians visiting the Red Sea.

 "We are in low season, but it is disheartening to know that at Sharm El Sheikh there are only 208 Italians, whilst at Marsa Alam there around 800. This is just under 1000, compared to the 12,629 in December 2015 and the 34,404 during the same month in 2014. This is a drop of 64 percent."

 It was with this in mind that the Egyptian delegation chose to come to the BIT fair with the aim of creating an opportunity to listen to tour operators, promote Egypt's sights and encourage the idea that the tourism situation in the country can still be improved.

 The fall in Egypt's tourism comes after many Western and European countries, the main sources of the country's tourists, warned their citizens not to travel to the area following the uprising in 2011 that led to the formation of a new government. Just as the industry was beginning to pick up again, the bombing of a convoy of Mexican tourists in the Western Desert in 2015, which killed dozens, led to international criticism of Egypt's security forces who claimed they mistook the convoy for jihadist insurgents.

 Only months afterwards the bombing of a Russian plane flying over the Sinai area in the North-East of the country provoked accusations that the country's current security measures were inadequate for the mass tourism it once enjoyed.

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