By Rehab Saad Travellers to Egypt this summer will be able to enjoy not only its magnificent monuments and sandy beaches but another attraction -- bargain shopping. The hopefully canny mix of cut-price consumerism with tourism begins on Monday, with the opening of a month-long festival, beginning 20 July, in Cairo and the Red Sea resort of Hurghada. The festival aims to give a boost to tourism by targeting the recreational shopper, particularly those hailing from the Gulf countries, Russia and Eastern Europe. And an additional spin-off of the event will be the promotion of a wide-range of Egyptian products, including clothes, crafts, carpets, electrical appliances and cars. Discounts are offered on practically everything. Thirty-two hotels in Cairo and Giza and 24 in Hurghada will offer 50 per cent discounts on standard room rates. EgyptAir also plans to reduce fares by the same amount. Restaurants taking part in the festival will also offer concessionary prices, as will more than 500 shops, all of which will be setting out their stalls at the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC) and the Trade Fair grounds. To further encourage the hoped for orgy of consumer spending discounts offered by retailers will be supplemented by streamlined visa and customs procedures, and for those tourists spending LE500 or more, sales taxes will be refunded. "We are offering a fabulous package," said Sana'a Hendawi, a member of the Festival's executive committee. "Visitors over the coming month will be able to enjoy Egypt's excellent tourist facilities, at discounted prices, and in addition will be able to return home with bargains. And many travel agencies are offering rock-bottom deals combining travel with shopping." Luck, too, is going to play its part. Tombolas are planned, with a glittering array of prizes, including luxury cars, electrical appliances and holiday chalets. Jewellers taking part in the event have banded together to offer their own prize: any customer spending LE1,000 on gold will gain automatic entry to their own draw. The prize? A kilogramme bar of gold. Preparations for the event are in full swing: billboards are sprouting all over Cairo while the airport and participating malls are bedecked in promotional material. "We feel that this is a festival for all of us," said Sayed Ahmed, an airport taxi-driver. "It is not just the hotels, tourist villages and travel agencies that will get a piece of the cake, but others -- the taxi drivers, the bazaar and shop owners, the camel and horse drivers." "Shopping itself is an attraction," said shop-owner Reda Bassiouni. "Cairo's shopping facilities, which range from medieval souks to modern, air-conditioned malls, have something for everyone." "We have to think all the time of new trends in tourism to enrich our product," declared Mamdouh El-Beltagui, minister of tourism. "We will make use of this festival to promote Egyptian tourism in general." Egypt is not the first Arab country to capitalise on the seemingly insatiable desire to shop till you drop. Successful shopping festivals are organised annually by Dubai and in Beirut. "But we are not in competition with such events," El-Beltagui told Al Ahram Weekly. "Each country... has its own flavour, entertainments, attractions and nature." El-Beltagui pointed out that the Egyptian festival, unlike the Dubai event, is not exclusively focused on shopping but is also intended to promote Egyptian-made products to international buyers. In an attempt to ensure the festival's success, several governmental and semi-governmental bodies are cooperating closely. They include the ministries of tourism, interior, trade, finance, information and transport as well as EgyptAir, the national bank sector and the Federation of Egyptian Industries. "I am optimistic about this festival. I believe a lot of people will be unable to resist the combination of discounts, entertainment and good service," said Imtenan Sadeq of Cairo's Safir Hotel. In Hurghada, hotels have already started to receive tourists arriving specially for the event. "Occupancy rates have begun to increase in the last few days and advance reservations look promising. There are charter flights arriving from some Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. And even in the streets there are indications that the flow of tourists is improving," said Omar Suleiman, head of the Egyptian Tourism Authority's office in Hurghada. The government is supporting the event by exempting hotel gala parties from taxes, re-funding the sales tax and offering good rental prices for shop owners displaying their products at the CICC and the Trade Fair grounds. Visa and customs arrangements will also be simplified. For its part, the ministry of tourism has allocated $400,000 to promote the event in Arab countries, Russia and Eastern Europe. The promotion has included TV campaigns on Arab satellite channels and road shows in some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Dubai. One of the advertisements on a satellite channel show cases Cairo's luxury hotels, swimming pools, restaurants and amusement parks as well as horse- and camel-riders exercising near the Pyramids. The ad concludes on a suitably hospitable note: "Egypt, my house is your home." Officials believe that if successful, the festival will be extended next year to include other areas of Egypt, including Alexandria and Sharm El-Sheikh.
