The Egyptian Tourism Authority (ETA) revealed that it plans to spend at least US$5 million on a major marketing campaign in the Gulf in a bid to bring Arab tourists back to Egypt this summer.
Tourism in Egypt has virtually ground to a halt following the revolution. Samy Mahmoud, undersecretary head of International Tourism, Egyptian Tourism Authority said at yesterday’s GIBTM in Abu Dhabi that hotel occupancy in Egypt has slumped from 85% prior to the revolution, to around 25 – 35%.
“The situation now is really not good because we lose more than 65% from all our capacity,” he said.
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Mahmoud said the campaign would be launched next month to “send a warm message to the Arab people – please come to support Egypt this summer. We need all of you to visit Egypt to support the Egyptian revolution. I think the Arab people will understand this message, especially those from the Gulf area, because they try to help Egypt during this time as tourists and with investment.”
Mahmoud added that while the British and Italian markets were starting to see a return to Red Sea destinations of Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada, he slammed the Russian government for blocking Russian tourists from coming to Egypt on safety grounds.
“We are not happy with Russia because the Russian government is still not allowing any Russian tourists to visit Egypt – and this is something strange. We don’t understand the Russian government attitude. Russia is the biggest market for Egypt; last year we had more than 2.8 million tourists from Russia.”
In terms of the stability of Egypt Mahmoud said: “We have the stability. We have not got 100% safety but at least we have about 80 – 90% safe and this is okay.”
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