The performance of the tourism industry is improving but is still far from its normal levels, reports Ahmed Kotb The tourism industry witnessed obvious improvements recently with signs of fast recovery and a promising winter season. However, the attack on the Israeli embassy by some angry protesters last Friday raised concerns over the effects on the flow of tourists. "No cancellations have been reported until now and I expect everything will go well if such an incident does not reoccur," said Ezzat Abdel-Ghaffar, regional internal auditor for Travco, a leading travel agent. Travel agencies, though, will try to take advantage of the incident by pressing for price reductions, he noted. Eid Al-Fitr holiday last week had revived the tourism industry to some extent, and occupancy rates were the highest since 25 January thanks mainly to internal tourism. North coast beaches were full of Egyptians, so were the beaches of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada. "There were many promotions on hotel rates and tourism programmes and discounts that reached 50 per cent. These offers continued even after the end of the holiday," said Abdel-Ghaffar. He also said that the number of tourists started to rise rapidly by the beginning of August because Russians began to head for their favourite Red Sea resorts after the ban imposed last summer following some shark attacks was lifted. Moving ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, from Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital to Cairo to stand for trial also encouraged many tourists to visit the most famous Red Sea resort. "Mubarak's presence in Sharm El-Sheikh and the demonstrations against him scared away many tourists who feared the escalation of events, although I believe the effect was not very heavy," Abdel-Ghaffar noted, adding that the instability in Sharm El-Sheikh mainly affected Gulf tourists who usually head there along with other areas in the country. "The number of Gulf tourists who visited Sharm El-Sheikh since 25 January is close to zero per cent in comparison to last year," he stressed, adding that this slightly changed during Eid Al-Fitr holiday. "Currently, hotel occupancy rates in Hurghada is the highest at 70 to 75 per cent, and Sharm El-Sheikh comes next with 60 per cent," said Nagui Erian, deputy head of the Chamber of Hotel Facilities. "Cultural tourism in Cairo, Giza, Luxor and Aswan remains stagnant with occupancy rates between seven and 11 per cent due to political and security instabilities," he added. Occupancy rates during the revolution and the few months following it were below five per cent. Although it is clear that coastal tourism is flourishing in terms of the number of tourists, the financial returns are not. "Because of the offers available, tourists now pay half the amount they used to pay on accommodation and recreation costs," Erian stated. In addition, Abdel-Ghaffar noted that European and now American tourists' expenditure levels have also declined due to fears of economic recession. To Erian, stability and security are the key to restore normal numbers of tourists. "The less violent demonstrations and clashes with security forces, the more tourists will feel it is safe to come," he said. Erian also added that there is no problem with peaceful demonstrations and strikes because tourists respect that as one form of freedom of expression. "Violence is the only problem," he concluded. Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on Monday that the number of all tourists who visited Egypt in the second quarter (April-June) of 2011 dropped by 35 per cent to reach 2.2 million compared to 3.5 million in the same period of last year.
