Inhospitable sands

Does the Egyptian tourism industry discriminate against Egyptians? Rehab Saad investigates
Just 20 years ago it was easy for an Egyptian family to holiday in their own country. You headed by bus or train for one of the popular resorts -- Alexandria, Ras Al-Barr, Baltim, Gamasa -- you rented a flat or cabin, you got an umbrella and some beach seats and then you simply placed yourself strategically on the nearest stretch of sand. You could bring your own food and prices were affordable.
All that has changed. Fancy hotels and resorts have replaced rented flats. Aeroplanes have muscled out trains and buses, and public beaches are shut to the non-paying public. But the most dramatic change has come in prices. Instead of the small sums of the past, it has become almost impossible to avoid paying a fortune for a holiday. As an Egyptian traveller put it, "I have to pay a high rate for a hotel room. Then I also have to pay for food and drinks. Who says it is reasonable to have to spend five pounds for a bottle of water or LE10 for a sandwich? And then officials say they encourage domestic tourism. It is theft: pure and simple."
Even traditional resorts such as Alexandria have put prices out of reach for the average Egyptian. Beaches now charge high entrance fees, and holiday-makers are obliged to rent umbrellas, seats, tables and other amenities. It is forbidden to bring your own food or drink and holiday- makers must buy from cafeterias on-site at exaggerated prices. "Spending the summer holiday in Alexandria has now become a dream for most of us. Now I have to think long and hard before deciding to spend a day on the beach, because I know it will cost me a fortune. This is crazy," complained Mohamed Shawqi, a civil servant.
Egyptians may suffer twice over. Those who can afford to go to the Red Sea resorts complain that they are charged double or even triple the prices demanded of foreign travellers, although by law they should be given half-price. And although they pay more, the treatment they receive is noticeably inferior to that which foreigners enjoy.
In 1997, when foreign tourism was hit by the Luxor massacre, all hotels and travel agencies turned to domestic tourism for salvation. Prices were slashed and packages devised to suit the budget of middle-income Egyptians. Officials conspicuously praised domestic tourism, though they soon fell silent again once the crisis was over. It is as if Egyptians are mere "spares," to be pulled out only in times of difficulty.
"It is not that we ignore Egyptian travellers. The issue here is marketing strategy," argues Maha Saad, director of public relations at Middle East Starwood hotels and resorts. She explained that most resorts in Egypt depend mainly on European, American and Asian tourists and went on to point out that, "90 per cent of the foreign tourists do not come as individuals [unlike Egyptian tourists]. They come in large groups and within the framework of big charter trips. So it is logical that the price given to them is less than that given to individuals or those coming in smaller numbers. A wholesale product is sold at a cheaper price."
Saad added that Egyptians spend a maximum three weeks in hotels throughout the year. "Thus, from the marketing point of view, the Egyptian client is not a targeted customer for hotels, and no marketing effort is made to attract him," she explained.
In the same vein, Carmen Ramzy, public relations manager of Hilton, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "The foreign market gives me a whole year of work. Their business is "back to back," one group coming as the other is leaving, unlike the Egyptian market." So for her, it makes more sense to concentrate on foreign tourists.
Ramzy believes that Egyptians should change their patterns of travel and start opting for group instead of individual travel. "This policy applies also to foreign travellers. If I have a big group of foreigners I will give each of them a room for $60, for instance, but if I have a foreign individual I will give him the same room for $200 or $250," she explained. "Besides," she added, "Egyptians always choose the peak seasons to travel. Summer is a peak season in Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, as we receive lots of Italians, Spanish and Germans at that time of the year, so it is hard to give any discounts for Egyptian travellers because we are already full."
Amal Rostom, an Egyptian housewife, takes exception. "This is not our fault," she remarked. "This is the only time when we can have our holidays because of our children and their schools and universities. Why should foreigners travel when it suits them and we are asked to change our trends because it is the foreigners' peak season?"
Ramzy scoffs at claims that no-one gives local tourists lucrative offers, pointing out that she herself offers packages with reasonable prices. But Hamza Shawkat, a tourist guide, dismissed these arguments, saying, "Even the prices of such packages [for Egyptians] are more expensive than prices given to foreign groups. Hotels in Sharm and Hurghada sometimes charge foreign travellers $10 or $20 for a room, while Egyptians are charged over LE150. It is ironic that it is becoming cheaper for Egyptians to holiday abroad than in their own country."
And don't the travel operators know it. Since the advent of summer travel, agencies have been competing to offer lucrative packages beyond Egypt's borders. An Egyptian in search of respite from a Cairo summer can visit Turkey for LE1,590 for a week, a price which includes airfare, accommodation and transport in Turkey. Another company offers a similar package to Turkey for LE990, Paris and Amsterdam for LE2,990, Paris and Brussels for LE2,790 and Paris alone for LE2,290. All these trips last at least eight days and including airfare, accommodation, food and transport.
Now compare offers to Egyptians for time at the Red Sea or Sinai. The same newspapers that carry advertisements for foreign travel also advertise domestic packages. The comparisons are telling. A double room in Hurghada, on half-board basis, excluding airfare or transport, costs LE149 per person per night. Clearly, then, Hurghada for eight days will cost LE1,043 per person, excluding the plane ticket which will add about LE300 more to the traveller's outlay.
Tourist experts explain that trips to foreign countries are sometimes much cheaper than prices offered by Egyptian resorts because charter flights are used and tourists are accommodated in three or two star hotels instead of five star hotels.
But that fails to explain everything. According to a report published by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), three quarters of the tourists moving through Australia are, in fact, Australian. In Canada, 81 per cent of tourists are domestic and in the USA it is 70 per cent. Commenting on these figures, Ahmed El-Khadem, general-manager of the Egyptian Federation of Tourism Chambers, said, "In Egypt, foreign tourism constitutes 88 per cent of the total tourist movement. Domestic tourists only make up 12 per cent. If five million tourists visited Egypt in 2000, then only 618,000 Egyptians did domestic tours."
The former head of the Egyptian Tourism Authority, Sayed Moussa, believes that the main problem with domestic tourism is purely psychological. "Sellers believe that a tourist service should only be provided to a foreigner. Sometimes they wrongly believe that domestic tourism (Egyptian travellers) are of a lesser category than foreign tourists. At the same time, the Egyptian traveller fully believes that he receives treatment (...) less than that received by foreign tourists. There should be some effort by both parties to resolve this physiological barrier," he argued.
Moussa also believes that the attitude of some domestic tourists annoys hoteliers.
Steven Newbigging, of Thomas Cook Company, was more forthright. He told the Weekly, "there are some hoteliers who make their prices very expensive for Egyptians, in order to attract only certain people, a certain class."
Whatever the reasons, some experts think there is an easy way to help Egyptians enjoy their own country. Wassem Mohieddin, a hotelier, suggests that if Egypt really wants to encourage domestic tourism, it should urge investors to build two star and one star hotels, affordable to Egyptians. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough of these hotels. All investments are directed to the deluxe hotels and places that are established to service a very specific category of traveller," he said. Any takers?
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