5 million tourists bring in $4 bn during 2013

[DJKeefy]

5 million tourists bring in $4 bn during 2013: Egypt tourism minister.

Egypt has received 5 million tourists, generating $4 billion in revenues since the start of the year, Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou has said.

Speaking last week at an Egyptian Tourism Journalists Association conference, the minister added that the number of visitors could reach 13 million by the end of the current year, which would bring the industry close to its pre-revolution level of 14.8 million tourists in 2010.

Egypt received 1.1 million tourists in April 2013, 5.2 percent more than the 1 million it received in the same period last year, according to data previously released by state statistics agency CAPMAS, which put the April 2010 at 1.2 million visitors.

The corresponding figures for May 2013 are yet to be released.

Revenues have not kept up with tourist numbers, however, as each tourist currently spends $70.3 per night, compared to $85 per night in 2010, according to the minister.

Many Egyptian tourism agencies and hotels dramatically cut prices to maintain occupancy levels in the wake of the 2011 revolution.

"Egypt is seeing larger numbers of domestic and foreign tourists, but this cannot be considered a full-fledged recovery until it translates into higher revenues," Elhamy El-Zayat, head of Egypt's Federation of Tourism Chambers (EFTC), told Ahram Online in May.

"Prices are significantly lower than they were in 2010, so the number of tourists isn't a correct gauge of the sector's current performance compared to 2010," he added.

However, Zaazou warned that the progress made thus far was fragile, and that the tourism industry would return to "square one" if protests scheduled for 30 June turn violent.

The Rebel campaign, which since May has been working to collect 15 million signatures in a vote of no confidence in President Morsi, plans to hold nationwide anti-government demonstrations throughout the last week of June, culminating in a march to the presidential palace on 30 June.

Though Rebel campaign organisers have stressed their commitment to peaceful protests, this has not assuaged public fears of the demonstrations taking a violent turn.

Zaazou, for his part, urged all of Egypt's political currents to express themselves through peaceful means, for the sake of the recovering industry.

Egypt's tourism sector has received several blows since the beginning of this year, the most serious of which was the highly-publicised hot air balloon accident in Luxor that left 19 tourists dead in late January.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/73998.aspx

[DJKeefy]

They must be talking about the Red Sea area's, Luxor has been very quiet.

[Chocolate Eclair]

we have just had our next door nieghbours return from Hurghada and they say its very quiet there, so it now locates as Sharm being the money grabber. But again other friends went to their apartment last month and reported Sharm was quiet too... Maybe tourists are short on the ground but that will get worse, like you say if June 30th turns violent, and after talking to local they seem to think that the people in the Nile Delta are getting restless again, and talking of a 2nd Revolution. If that is the case, Egypt will flounder again and things will go from bad to impossible.

They should realise that after the first revolution there was a lot of work to do, this work will take years to complete, and if by demonstrating they think they will change things they may well be wrong! the harm it would do when seen on World Television will be unsurpassed..

[A-Four]

They must be talking about the Red Sea area's, Luxor has been very quiet.

It seems you are right Keefy. Some of the younger members of my family have just returned from Sharm el Sheikh, where they have been going to for the past five years, and this years holiday cost less than all previous. HOWEVER, they inform me that the place is now full of Russians walking around p***ed up on cheap vodka all day and night.

Apparently, the hotel they stayed was until this year full with West Europeans, these are very thin on the ground now, it seemed they were the only ones that did not have the coloured wrist band. The food at the hotel is now buffet only, and very poor at that,........Well, in my opinion, at least the Government of Egypt, are now able to collect the FULL tax that is due to it, where as in Luxor,.............well, I think we all know what has always happened in Luxor.

[Hafiz]

How could 5 million tourists bring in $4 billion? That would mean $800 per tourist per trip. Not a lot. The airfare to and from Egypt must be close to the spend in Egypt.

The figures seem to indicate that Egypt is not for big spenders.

On the Government figures of an average daily spend of $70 the average stay would be be a bit over 11 days and $70 per day would lead to to, maybe, about $20 to $30 spent outside the hotel/accommodation. If this is true, and averages are easy to misunderstand, there is little money going into Egyptian pockets outside the hotels.

The figure often quoted on Red Sea tourists is that it is 80% of the total and increasing If true, Red Sea tourism provides less income for the average Egyptian (gift shops, tours, restaurants, bars, taxis, entrance fees etc.) than in Cairo, Luxor, Alex. etc. and more for the hotel and the services which hang off them. Typically the Red Sea hotels offer rock bottom prices (or are forced by the tour companies or forced by their need to service their debt with at least some cash flow) but get free advertising and 'guaranteed' numbers. The companies offering packages have the whip hand and never so much as in tough times. The reduction in average daily spend seems to show this. Small locally owned hotels are locked out and never have money for advertising and end up looking 'expensive' when compared with a package.

It sort of goes to show that resort type tourism doesn't share the tourist money around. Nothing wrong with it but a healthy tourism industry should be a bit more balanced and offer smaller players a share of the pie. Oops isn't that what the useless and feather-bedded Tourism Authority paid to do?