Is tourism taking a dive?

How is Sharm El-Sheikh coping with the global tourism crisis? Jenny Jobbins went there to find out, and discovered that this is the perfect time to visit
I seem to have been living a little dangerously lately -- last week I flew to Sharm El-Sheikh. My nail biting had nothing to do with flight safety, but rather that I woke at 5.27 for my 6.15 flight. I made the flight -- which left on time -- thanks to a formidable taxi driver who got me there from Zamalek for double the fare.
If I'd missed the flight, I would have had to wait until the next day. All other flights were booked. The waiting lists were full. Ah-ha, you might say, people clearly aren't worried about flying. Not necessarily. EgyptAir has responded to the recent crisis by slashing the number of flights. It has also upped the fare by LE25 "to cover extra insurance."
Airlines have now had a few weeks to take stock since the attacks on the United States, and are responding with pragmatism. Lufthansa may not be ordering any new planes for a while, but since German visitors to Egypt in 2000-2001 are up by 43 per cent over 1999, it is cutting its weekly flights here by only two -- down from 20 to 18. No one knows how long the global tourism crisis will last, but they are not giving up hope yet.
In Sharm El-Sheikh, there was no sign of tourists. I was shown straight to my hotel room -- no waiting until noon for the key. As I strolled the promenade, clutching a bottle of water and sporting a brand-new straw hat, it seemed a typical Sharm morning: fairly empty. Last night's revellers were still sleeping, while the keen divers were out on the reef. Whether there were many tourists here could only be judged when the dive boats returned at the end of the afternoon.
Indeed, by evening the town was swarming. "This is nothing," boat skipper Udo Fischer told me. "In October it's usually so full you can't move." Fischer has been in Na'ama Bay since 1980, and was the only resident who stayed in Sharm El-Sheikh through the 1982 handover of Sinai to Egypt. He has seen the growth of the town, all the changes and the turbulence caused to local tourism by terrorism and international politics.
Natural disasters, too, have struck the area. In 1998, the reefs were overrun by crown of thorns starfish. "I thought the reef was finished, and that was the end of Sharm," says tour operator Khaled Shaker. "Everything here depends on scuba diving. We were pulling starfish out of the water by the hundreds."
But scientists soon realised that the problem was caused by people fishing illegally, decimating the population of snapper fish which prey on the starfish. A stop was immediately put to the fishing, and already the balance is normalising.
Nature may have its own balance, but what about that arch-predator on our planet, mankind, and the greatest threat he poses, man-at- war? The war on terrorism might be some distance away, but the attacks of New York and Washington are fresh in our minds, and people are still afraid of flying. Global tourism is suffering.
Dive centre managers say they are getting lots of Internet enquiries, but they aren't leading to bookings, and there is a frequently- expressed fear that some operators may not be able to hold on. There was a similar crisis during the Gulf War when some were on the brink of going out of business.
The dive centres have fewer clients than October last year, but most of the current divers booked and paid before 11 September and came because there was no refund on their holiday. Overall, European clients are down by 20 per cent, not including the Italians -- who usually make up the bulk of Sharm's diving market -- who have pulled out altogether following their government directive. One Swiss couple cancelled their holiday because they heard that two of the highjackers who targeted the World Trade Center were Egyptian. Dive centres throughout Sharm have few bookings after November. Managers say Internet enquirers seen to be waiting until the situation is clarified.
Hotels are reporting similar falls. Fayrouz Hilton Director of Operations Sherif Nassar says occupancy stands at an average of 61 per cent compared with 88.5 per cent in October last year. Most of the fall is caused by Italian cancellations. Nassar says, however, that it is too early to make predictions. "Holidays in Sharm are going to be so cheap and divers are adventurous, so why shouldn't they come?" he says, adding: "After each drop, there's always been a boom." Nevertheless, he says hotels will be focusing on the Egyptian and Gulf markets. They will also be looking more closely at future forecasts before they begin expanding their numbers of rooms.
Medhat Khalaf, Rooms Division Manager at Helnan Marina Sharm, says European travel agents are obliged to fill their current contracts, but he expects a drop after that. "People will only travel when they know it's safe," he says realistically.
Khalaf echoes the reports of cancellations by Italians, but says there are still large numbers of German, Swiss and British divers. The Helnan Marina's occupancy rates have fallen to an average of 70 per cent compared with 95 per cent a year ago, and he thinks the trend could last for two months or two years. "We are going to have to aim for the expatriate and Egyptian local market," he says. "We are leaning more towards local travel agents and encouraging clubs and school trips." With this aim, the Marina Sharm's room rates are already slashed by 50 per cent.
While travel industry operators are using their spare time to socialise with each other, divers are having a field day. Reef occupancy is way down, and they no longer have to avoid bumping into each other. Prices have dropped to attractive levels -- though not restaurant prices, since restaurateurs are smart enough to know that once the tourists are here, they still have to eat. I talked to Reina Stettler and Bernhard Burghold from Bern, Switzerland, who were enjoying Happy Hour at Pirates in the Hilton on the first night of a week's holiday. They booked their holiday at the beginning of October, taking advantage of a last-minute price on the Internet.
"We needed a rest," Stettler said. "Bed and breakfast, snorkelling and a beach. Nothing else." This is the couple's second visit to Sharm; they came four years ago for a diving holiday. "We had a beautiful time here," she said. "This time we knew security would be tight and it would be really safe to be here."
The sentiment that divers take risks and are not afraid of flying in the current climate is echoed by both Sharm residents and tourists. Nevertheless, I did talk to one British couple who had considered the risk. Chris Morgan, an engineer working in Oman, and Rebecca Webb, who works in Holland, flew from Amsterdam to see friends in Cairo and then travelled on to Sharm to dive. It was their first visit to Egypt. They booked their flight before 11 September, and say that had they left it until later they probably would not have come. "Well," Webb conceded, looking out of the window of the Camel Bar to the holiday atmosphere in the street below, "Not to Cairo, anyway." Morgan added: "But we're glad it's like this. We wouldn't like it so much if it were more crowded."
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