The sale of alcohol at Cairo's Grand Hyatt Hotel will not be banned outright, as first reported, but restricted to a single, 40th floor bar, Reem Leila reports Hyatt International, which runs the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo, has urged Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Ibrahim bin Ibrahim, a member of the Saudi royal family and the owner of the luxury property, to reconsider his ban on the sale of alcohol to hotel guests, fearing that it will drive away tourists. Last April, Abdel-Aziz ordered that the hotel's entire stock of alcohol be destroyed without providing any advance notice to the Hyatt International. "Nearly $300,000 were poured down the drains following a decision that violates Egypt's hotel rules," said Fathi Nour, president of the Egyptian Hotel Association (EHA). "Alcohol is no longer available at the hotel's restaurants or in the mini-refrigerators in rooms. We have been negotiating for three weeks and have reached an agreement under which we will serve alcohol at a bar on the 40th floor. Talks will continue in the hope of securing a better arrangement," Grand Hyatt Marketing Director Sally Khattab told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Grand Hyatt occupies a coveted site overlooking the River Nile. It is minutes from Cairo's diplomatic quarter and the British and American embassies in the Garden City district. Like all five-star hotels in Egypt, alcohol used to be available there. The ban, says Khattab, did not come as a complete surprise since the sheikh had publicly expressed reservations over the sale of alcohol for several years. "His decision to stop selling alcohol at the hotel was based on his belief it will make the hotel more suitable for families," she explained. The Hyatt International Corporation, a subsidiary of the Chicago-based holding company Global Hyatt Corporation, manages the hotel. If Hyatt pulls out the hotel will probably be run independently, as happened in 2002 and 2003 when former managers of Le Méridien left following a managerial dispute and the hotel continued operating under the name Royal Nile Towers. A press release issued by the Ministry of Tourism pointed out that any hotel above two stars must serve alcohol and that owners of properties are not allowed to interfere in the running of hotels leased to managing company. A new breed of "Islamic hotels" catering to Muslim travellers has emerged in some Gulf countries. "It's not a bad idea but I don't think there is a market for it in Egypt," says Nour, who denies that any threats were made to strip the hotel of its five-star rating should the owners' decision stand. "Negotiations between the owner and the operating company started immediately after the announcement and everything was settled between both parties without our intervention," says Nour. Whether cruising on the River Nile or lazing by the Red Sea, Europeans account for two-thirds of Egypt's tourists. The sheikh's decision had an immediate impact on the hotel's revenues. "The loss has been huge, especially during the weeks of negotiation," says Khattab. "We still haven't calculated the total." She expects the hotel to start feeling the pinch by next month, revealing that the operating company will meet all the expenses, and benefit from the revenues, of the Hyatt's only bar. "None of the profits or expenses will be included in the owner's profits," she says. Momtaz Radwan, the owner of a travel agency, reports that as soon as the ban was announced cancellations of bookings at the hotel began. "We simply cannot afford to remove alcohol from Egypt's hotels. It's one of the things that draws visitors and banning it would put millions of Egyptians out of work." In a country where fault lines between secular liberals and religious conservatives run deep the debate following the announcement quickly spread to encompass issues far wider than the potential impact on the profits of one hotel. With 11 million visitors in 2007 -- up a fifth on the previous year -- tourism accounts for almost 20 per cent of Egypt's foreign currency earnings and represents 12 per cent of economic activity. The government is seeking to attract more than 14 million visitors annually by 2011.
