Tourism outlook for Egypt

[newcastle]

The tourism outlook for Egypt is looking better than it has for some time.

Another thread mentioned the investment of $800 million by Saudi businessman Prince Al-waleed bin Talal in hotels in Sharm & the North Coast. Now we have:

"CAIRO (Reuters) - Hilton Worldwide (HLT.N) plans to nearly double the number of its hotels in Egypt within seven to 10 years as tourism returns to levels seen before a 2011 uprising, the company's deputy head for Egypt and North Africa said."

"But Mohab Ghali, vice president of operations for Egypt and North Africa, expects occupancy rates to improve from last year, especially in Cairo and Alexandria, but also in Hurghada and Marsa Alam, helped by a devaluation of the currency making holidays cheaper."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egyp ... SKBN1AP1WQ

No mention of Luxor, I'm afraid....still plagued by the problem of (lack of) easy affordable access.

2016 was a dreadful year. Following the Sinai plane crash in Oct 2015, Tourist numbers plumeted to 5.3 million compared to 9.3 million the previous (2015) year.

But 2007 is on target to recover to 2015 levels...and beyond.

https://tradingeconomics.com/egypt/tourist-arrivals

We're used to over-optimistic predictions by the Egyptian tourist authorities, but the signs are encouraging. A resumption of UK/Russian flights to Sharm would give an enormous boost.

Maybe the drip-drip of negative news conveying the impression that Egypt is not safe has reached saturation point. Its impact has leveled out and holidaymakers look around and think....is Egypt really any less safe than anywhere else in the world nowadays?

[denisegr]

I popped into Thompson's yesterday and although they were supposed to be restarting flights to sharm later this year this has now been cancelled by the powers that be, the travel agent said obviously they know something we dont.

[newcastle]

Thomson restarting flights was always dependent on the UK changing it's travel advice to Sharm....which they anticipated might be forthcoming soon.

As it hasn't, and Thomson have to plan ahead to some extent, they probably felt they had no alternative but to postpone their plans once again.

I doubt either they, or UK government, are "hiding" anything.

[denisegr]

Maybe i should of worded that better, it was the TA that said that they obviously know something that we dont.like yourself i dont think they are hiding anything.

[Major Thom]

I dont think things will change for Luxor, The other thing this dripping of improvements is all coming from the State.