Tourism News
One Million British Tourists Visited Egypt Till Last October, ..
Minister of Tourism Zuhair Garranah said that the British tourism market in Egypt is stronger than ever with the United Kingdom being the major contributor to tourism. He, added that the number of British tourists has exceeded one million tourists up until October of this year, representing an increase of 9.8% over the same period last year. This came after the opening of the world travel market (WTM) in London. After a series of professional meetings and briefings, he met a group of leading British companies who organize flights, airlines, and in particular representatives of Thomas Cook, Pel Tours, Ryan Air, Cosmos, Jet2.com, Discover Egypt, IST, TUI UK and Egypt Air. Garranah spoke about the impact on Egyptian tourism following the worldwide economic crisis. He mentioned, that there was a decline in the number of tourists until the end of last October reaching — 4.5%, revenues also fell and the total number of tourist nights fell by — 4.8%. He stressed the need to pool all efforts in the coming period to reduce the negative impact expected until the middle of next year. Garranah announced his intention to continue his support to tour operators and charter airlines, referring to the resolution which was launched last week for Luxor airport to fly with charter airlines. This was in addition to four other airports (in the Mediterranean Sea, Aswan, Taba, Red Sea) in order to promote tourism during the coming period. The Minister of Tourism said that there is an ambitious plan for the development of the northern coast of the Mediterranean. He referred to the area’s natural resources which are unmatched, and he confirmed that there are 15 thousand rooms under construction in this region. The focus of this plan is placing Egypt into the imagination of tourists, changing pat-terns means that they are currently searching for the best prices, short stays, last minute bookings and preferences for proximity to tourist destinations. For its part, Egypt topped the British tourist’s destinations, and it experienced the largest growth rate. The British market in Egypt has exceeded the number of tourists going to other, previously popular destinations such as Mallorca, Spain. Firms noted that the tourism market of the elite English customers to Egypt occupies the first place. Some of the companies confirmed that they expect growth rates that may exceed 20%, in particular to Luxor and Sharm El-Sheikh. These positive forecast results can be attributed to joint campaigns which have been adopted by the ministry during the past few years, with respect to advertising and marketing in the UK.
Garranah stresses the need to reduce the number of divers
Minister of Tourism, said that the purpose of the application of new laws and regulations on tourism diving have been put in place to ensure the safety of tourists. To preserve coral reefs, the number of divers in coral reef areas should not exceed 10 thou-sand divers. However, the number has now reached 48 thousand divers, a number which should not be accepted and must be ad-dressed. Garranah mentioned that under the current expansion of hotels to accommodate the growing numbers of tourists coming to Egypt, we must not sacrifice of the coral reefs.
Members of the French Chamber of Commerce pointed out that the quality of service provided to tourists should be improved, which has been preempted by the Ministry through the training of workers in the sector of tourism, and also through the application of new standards on hotel facilities in accordance with the standards and specifications of the World Tourism Organization.
At the end of his speech, Garranah emphasized that the year 2010 will be a difficult year and further efforts are required. He also noted that the world faced difficulties by the economic crisis that has led to the increase in unemployment of about 50 million individuals, besides the loss of 50 trillion dollars of wealth of nations.