Tourism officials say air transport could help Egyptian tourism overcome the impact of a coming recession. Amirah Ibrahim looks into the issue Official tourism delegations have been busy expanding Egypt's shares of the world's travel business at international tourism bourses when the tour operators raised two main questions over Egypt's air transport operation. At the Berlin fair, Egypt's Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah voiced the fears of many within the tourist industry. "What will happen in 2009 is the million-dollar question. We realise it is going to be a very tough year. We need to work quickly and very aggressively to minimise losses from the business," Garranah said. "Egypt has been represented by delegations from the Tourism and Aviation Ministries at this year's travel bourses in order to boost travel and tourism movement to Egypt in light of the growing financial crisis. During the interaction with tour operators, Egypt was projected as a safe, enjoyable and an affordable destination," explained Amr El-Ezabi, head of the Tourism Developing Authority. El-Ezabi, a top assistant to the tourism minister monitored complaints by tour operators that German airlines announced plans to cut their flights to a number of countries including Egypt. "A main factor to promote tourism is the means of transport which tourists use. As for Egypt, 85 per cent of tourism movement to our country arrives by air transport. Of these tourists, 65 per cent are charter passengers going to Egyptian resorts. Thus, it is of a great concern to ensure that tourists do not face troubling air travel experiences and that there are enough seats and suitable flights offered to the targeted markets in Europe and other areas around the world." German tourism movement comes second with 1.2 million tourists annually. El-Ezabi explained that all partners in the tourism business aim to reduce the costs at the expense of others; thus coordination and cooperation are necessary to survive the current difficult year. "German airlines apparently are heading to near destinations, a trend that many airlines adopt, as travelers tend to plan their vacations in neighbouring countries so as to reduce costs. Air Berlin is due to introduce flights from Duesseldorf to Venice in May, while Germania is to start air services to Bari from Duesseldorf and the Swiss city of Basle, across the border from Germany. German tour operators asked Egyptian tourism officials to put pressure on both German airlines to maintain their current operations or apply only margin cuts for a certain duration, and on the national carrier EgyptAir to increase flight frequencies and add more destinations to German cities. "We had meetings with airline operators and officials and they are certain to cut their operation at least by 10 per cent. This in fact means that the maximum seats offered will not exceed the load factor of flights during the past year. If the load factor last year reached 85 per cent, then airlines will be offering 15 per cent less flights and seats which we do not wish to happen," El-Ezabi explained. According to him, some markets maintained the same size of movement such as England and France while others are expected to witness a reduction in tourists such as Russia, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic by 20-25 per cent, a percentage that may jump more with the case of the Ukrainian market. "The vision is not clear at all even for the next summer. Early bookings are delayed but we cannot give any predictions. We have monitored many cases where German airlines cancelled routes and cut flights. We discussed a number of alternatives in which we can help promoting the traffic movement to Egypt." These alternatives included organising free tours to Egypt for sales agents and travel writers, in addition to launching extensive advertising campaigns and inviting tour operators for promotional and marketing tours in Egypt," El-Ezabi indicated. In Russia's Moscow International Tourism and Travel Exhibition MITT, more than 3,000 travel businesses gathered from 118 countries. Russian tour operators raised another issue with Egyptian Tourism officials: the impact of the high death toll of road accidents in Egypt among Russian tourists. According to data provided by Russian travel agencies, Russian tourists are most commonly killed and injured in fatal road accidents in Ukraine, Turkey and Egypt. Last month, at least 24 Russian tourists were killed and 25 injured in a fatal road accident in Israel caused by reckless driving after a bus plunged 80 metres down a ravine near the Red Sea resort city of Eilat. Two months ago, six Russian tourists were killed and 17 injured in a bus crash in eastern Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. "It is time to raise at the state level the issue of the safety of Russian nationals in countries most popular with Russian tourists. And travel agencies should tighten requirements for their partners in these countries," warned a member of the Russian Duma. Some reports quoted the Duma member as calling for a ban on tourism to Egypt. According to the Egyptian Interior Ministry, about 27,000 road accidents occur in the North African country every year, killing over 6,000 people and injuring another 30,000. In early August the country introduced harsher penalties in an attempt to reduce traffic violations. "The media made a big story of the issue. We met with the Duma member and even persuaded him to visit Egypt and he accepted the invitation," El-Ezabi commented. Meetings with tour operators have been fruitful discussing requests by many to use planes instead of buses. "The Russian tour operators promised to keep up the flow and strengthen the bonds of friendship between both countries. Some operators asked to enhance the Egyptian fleet operating on domestic routes to Sinai Peninsula and Red Sea cities. Such a demand at present could be difficul because most Russian tourists cannot afford the increase in costs which will increase their costs by four times." "On the other hand, the national carrier as well as private airlines operating in Egypt do not posses such a large capacity to cover the daily domestic trips among Sinai, Red Sea and upper Egyptian cities," he explained.
