Rehab Saad talks to the head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority about tourism trends in Egypt during 2006, and fresh plans for 2007 Tourism to Egypt witnessed a boost in 2006, recording 9.082 million tourists who spent 89.3 million nights resulting in revenues of $7.6 billion. Meanwhile, new potential markets emerged, such as China and India, while traditional markets such as France and Italy retreated. But others, such as Russia, maintained their position. Arab markets also advanced last year with new promotional plans to attract more Arab travellers. Marketing campaigns, according to tourist officials, depend on the position of each market, its strength and Egypt's share in it. "Our business plan is very basic," according to Ahmed , head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA). "It doesn't change very much from year to year, but essentially builds on whatever result we have attained in each market and we look for some degree of growth in the following year." The plan in 2007 is to increase Egypt's share of each market by an average of about 10 to 12 per cent. "This would be a very acceptable rate for us," asserted . The budget for tourism promotion in 2007 is $30 million for international promotional campaigns, $10 million for Egypt's joint advertiser tour operator and $8 for tourism fairs all over the world. The Slogan of Egypt's new campaign abroad is "Nothing Compares to Egypt" and the name of the campaign is "The Gift of the Sun". "Today, tourists are looking for a total experience rather than just a place to visit, which is what we try to show in our advertising," he asserted. "The tourist looks at the imagery, the footage, etc and it's all about the experience, the bazaars, the unique setting and the felucca on the Nile. This is the current trend in promotion." The ETA chief explained that despite growth in some markets, a future decline is expected. "We have very high growth rates in markets like the UK, Ireland, India and China, but it is not possible to sustain this very high rate," he said. "You cannot continue growing at a rate of about 30 per cent forever." As for the markets which witnessed a decline, there is an intention to intensify marketing activities there, such as promotional campaigns and other marketing tools "to try to recuperate what we lost in these markets, and to attain the previous level of growth. This will happen provided the reasons for the decline are technical." For example, the Israeli market dropped by 33 per cent because the government issued an advisory warning citizens from travelling to Egypt -- a non-technical reason. "There's nothing we can do about that," noted . Among the important markets which declined in 2006 were France and Italy -- French tourists dropped by 24.8 per cent in 2006 in comparison to 2005; meanwhile, Italians recorded a 4.5 per cent retreat from 823,000 tourists in 2005 to 786,000 in 2006. As a result, the ETA is now paying much attention to these markets. "We are heavily involved in France through the present exhibition of sunken treasures at the Grand Palais in Paris," he stated. "We are also organising a big event in Paris which will include a presentation by the Minister of Tourism promoting tourism to Egypt." Guests will include all major tour operators, travel agencies and media concerned with tourism. "It will be a major event to regain the French market." continued, Italy will be the target of several special activities, such as a prominent chef event/food festival where 40 to 50 Italian chefs will be invited to come to Egypt, and the event will be widely advertised in Italy. Moreover, last month, a special performance of Opera Aida was held in Milan, and was attended by the minister, as well as top Italian tour operators and travel agents. But despite the overall drop in these two particular markets, figures in the last three months of 2006 show a speedy return to normal figures. "In December, there was a 29 per cent increase in the French market and a 7.6 per cent growth in the Italian. Hopefully, we're recovering without relapse." From the Arab market -- which comes second after the Europe -- Saudi Arabia, Libya and Palestine made the list of top 10 tourist exporters to Egypt in 2006 for the first time. "We are working on two major fronts concerning this market," explained , "first, to increase the frequency of visits from once a year by promoting what is known as a 'short city break'." These are visits to Cairo for three nights for shopping, or trips to Alexandria for a quick tour, or a four-night Nile cruise to Luxor, and so on. "This is a new concept we are developing." Further, some emerging Arab markets which did not constitute tourist exporters to Egypt in the past are now viable candidates. "Syria, for instance, is emerging as a very serious market for Egypt; Oman is also emerging on a smaller scale, but is proving to be very important, as is Algeria. So, in addition to our usual work in the Arab market, we are going to include these three potential markets in our activities." Marketing techniques in Arab markets essentially rely on presence at all tourist fairs and annual road shows there. "Road shows brought us excellent results last year," declared . There are also big plans for non-traditional markets, including Australia, New Zealand and South America. "This year we are increasing marketing and promotional activities in non-classic markets," he said. "We are inviting more writers and media representatives from those potential markets to come and see Egypt for themselves and report about it. This proved to be a very useful tool." The ETA is also planning several road shows to these destinations. "This, of course, is in addition to our normal activities in traditional markets like promotional campaigns in some European countries and our normal activities with tour operators." Although Egypt has in past years primarily focussed on promoting its Red Sea and Mediterranean resorts, this year cultural tourism might regain its position as a main asset of visiting the country. "We have now placed the schedules of the Cairo and Alexandria opera houses, as well as different cultural activities in Cairo, on our website. They are available for tour operators, Egyptian travel agencies, hoteliers and individual travellers," said. In many of Egypt's sun and sea destinations, such as Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, there are little or no cultural activities, which the ETA is trying to change in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. said that the ministry is currently building museums in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada. Also, Sharm El-Sheikh will be home to a cultural centre which will be the venue of performances similar to those at the Opera House and Al-Gomhuriya Theatre in Cairo, and the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria. "These are very good additions at these locations and will offer more attractions," he asserted. "In the same vein, there will be a sound and light show in Hurghada chronicling the history of Egypt." Domestic tourism was also among the ETA's top priorities in 2006. Last year it launched a campaign called Lao Agaza Tebka Masr (If on vacation, make it Egypt), which is a similar slogan to 'Nothing compares to Egypt'. "It is more of an advertisement than a tourist campaign, and we will continue with it this year," explained , adding that the ETA is ready to collaborate with any governorate wanting to promote itself for domestic tourism. "Last year, we cooperated with Marsa Matruh and it was very successful," he said. "It received about five million domestic tourists, which is an excellent figure, and presents a superb model for any other governorate which really wants to put itself on the map in the coming years." Out of the belief that tourism is at the core of economic development, the ETA launched in April, 2006, a five-year tourism awareness campaign for Egyptians to highlight the importance of tourism for society and how best to deal with tourists. "The feedback of the campaign is tremendous, and the penetration of the first and second phases was over 85 per cent. This is relatively high for that type of campaign," according to . "Now we are in the phase dealing with the negative and positive attitudes towards tourists, highlighting the positives and downplaying the negatives. We decided to intensify the campaign on television because research shows that the highest penetration to distant segments of society, such as the less educated and less affluent, is via television." Although Egypt witnessed a notable peak in tourism last year, this was not reflected in its annual tourism fair. The Mediterranean Travel Fair (MTF) only survived six rounds before its British organiser, Reed Travel Exhibitions, decided to withdraw. "Reed Travel Exhibitions is a very responsible company with an international reputation it needs to uphold," explained . "After six years, they came to us and said, 'this is not working; if you want to continue doing it, go ahead, but it is not bringing you any benefit'." As a result, the Egyptian parties involved -- such as the Egyptian Hotel Association (EHA) and the Egyptian Travel Agencies Association (ETTA) -- met in London and Cairo and formally decided to discontinue the event. "We are now thinking of an Egypt event, rather than a Mediterranean one, during which we can bring potential agencies and tour operators and show them something exclusively Egyptian," divulged the ETA boss. "This is the formula we are thinking about, but it is not yet finalised." added that all successful tourism fairs are held in market countries, not at destinations. "Egypt is not a market yet, but a destination." He cited the ITB of Berlin, the FITUR of Spain, the World Travel Market of London and Al-Moltaqa in Dubai, as markets that export tourism. "The Gulf is a very big tourism exporting region and that's why many countries go to Al-Moltaqa. These include Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Tunisia and others, because they want their share of the Arab tourism market."
