Tourism stands strong
Newspaper Title: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg
Newspaper Number:
Thursday - 20 July 2017
The knife attack on European holiday-makers in Hurghada last Friday, which left two German tourists dead and four others injured, has raised concerns over another setback for Egypt’s tourism sector. The attacker was detained at the scene and the incident is being investigated by the authorities.
However, experts say the attack is not likely to represent a serious blow to the country’s sensitive tourism industry, as could have been the case until a year ago, especially since it was not an organised attack.
No cancellations to hotel reservations in Hurghada have been reported by travel agencies, and the flow of tourists has been normal, according to official reports, especially from Germany where the two dead tourists came from.
About 1,600 German tourists arrived in Hurghada on Saturday alone as part of the increasing number of trips taken from Germany to the South Sinai destination, and the local hotel occupancy rate currently stands at around 70 per cent, mostly thanks to German holiday-makers.
The German Embassy in Cairo announced on Sunday that the country’s Foreign Ministry had not changed its advice to travellers coming to Egypt following the Hurghada attack. There is no German advice against travel to Egypt except for certain areas that do not include Hurghada or Sharm El-Sheikh, the two main beach resorts in Sinai which both have high security measures.
Neither Thomas Cook nor TUI Germany, the largest tour operators in Europe, have announced modifications to their travel schedules to Egypt.
Nagi Erian, deputy head of the Chamber of Hotel Facilities at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said that attacks on tourists had been taking place in several parts of the world in recent years, creating understanding among holiday-makers that individual incidents could take place anywhere regardless of tough security measures.
There have been serious attacks in both France and Germany in recent years, for example, helping to attenuate the impact of attacks in Egypt.
Erian said that France had been hard hit by terrorism fears, especially after a string of attacks in Paris and Nice, but the impact had been minor, and France remains one of the most visited countries in the world by tourists. In 2015, about 85 million tourists visited France, and the country lost only an estimated 1.5 million visitors in 2016 as a result of the terrorist attacks.
“Tourists will keep on coming to Egypt. They understand that such events can happen anywhere in the world,” said Nasr Al-Fouli, a tourism expert who has worked for travel agencies in several countries.
Attacks on tourists take place in other countries more frequently than they do in Egypt, Al-Fouli pointed out, adding that a growing number of holiday-makers look beyond a travel warning to make sure they can enjoy their trip safely.
“Improvements on the political and security scenes have led to the stability needed for a recovery in the tourism sector. Egypt is safer than many other countries in the world, and tourists know that,” Al-Fouli stressed.
Efforts made by the Foreign Ministry, along with the Ministry of Tourism’s offices abroad, according to Al-Fouli, would limit the effects of last week’s tragedy on the flow of tourists to Egypt.
These include a massive promotional campaign in countries around the world to promote Egypt and its secure tourist destinations, as well as a plan to promptly address the international community following any attack like last Friday’s tragic incident in Hurghada.
Demand for holidays in Egypt has been picking up, with a rise in the number of bookings to destinations like Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada this summer, as these destinations are well known for their beautiful beaches and luxury resorts. The winter season will start with the Christmas holidays and normally witnesses more tourists coming to Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, along with cultural attractions like Luxor and Aswan.
Tourism is important to Egypt’s economy as one of its main sources of hard currency, but the industry has been unstable since the 25 January Revolution in 2011 due to political turmoil. However, the latter has not affected major tourist destinations in South Sinai such as Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada.
According to the Central Agency for Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), the number of tourists visiting Egypt in the first quarter of 2017 reached 1.73 million, a 51.1 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2016. April and May witnessed the arrival of 716,000 and 573,000 visitors, respectively, about a 30 per cent increase over last year.
The total number of tourists who visited Egypt in 2016 totalled 5.3 million compared to 9.3 million in 2015, with a 40 per cent decline due to the Russian plane crash in Sinai in October 2015. 2010 was the best ever for Egypt’s tourism sector with 14.7 million visitors.
Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed announced earlier this year that Egypt aimed to host some 10 million tourists by the end of 2017
