CAIRO: Sunny beaches, diving sites and luxurious resorts are replacing Egypt's plethora of antiquities and monuments as top tourist attractions. More visitors are opting to spend their vacations relaxing on the beach rather than exploring historical sites. Unlike a few decades ago, the majority of today's tourists head straight to resorts on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and often end up leaving without getting a glimpse of a single antiquity. These days, leisure tourism is dominating the tourism industry "This is a global trend that has been here for a few decades now. Thirty or 40 years ago we had a balance between leisure and cultural tourism, Hala El Khatib, media advisor and spokesperson of the Ministry of Tourism told Daily News Egypt. "However, right now, holidaymakers around the world are more into leisure tourism, which now counts for around 70 percent versus 30 percent for cultural tourism. According to El Khatib, leisure tourism now counts for 65 percent of the local market with the remaining divided between cultural tourism and corporate tourism (or business-themed trips). "[Whether they are here for leisure tourism or cultural tourism] this entirely depends on the nationality and age group as it differs from market to market, said Manal El Helaly, marketing manager at Thomas Cook Egypt. According to both El Helaly and El Khatib, the French, Germans, Americans and Japanese mainly opt for cultural tourism in Egypt. On the other hand, Italian, Russian, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish and Scandinavian tourists prefer leisure tourism. "People coming all the way from the US have enough leisure with the beaches and everything over there, so when they come to Egypt they like to visit historical sites. On the other hand, the Scandinavians don't have very good weather so they want to make good use of the sun and tan, so they tend to go for leisure tourism, explained El Khatib. "It's all about the customers' interest, their educational and cultural background in addition to their age, which is a huge factor. It's the young people who tend to go for the leisure while the older go for the cultural, said El Helaly. At the end of the day, Egypt has an edge in the market because it has both leisure and the culture tourism products. A wholesome package "We offer a diversified product so tourists can mix, said El Khatib. "Even if they are coming for the Red Sea, they can easily go for two or three days to Luxor and Aswan, she added. Yet although tourists have this option, they don't necessarily make use of it. "Tourists who mix between leisure and cultural [tourism] are not a lot because most of them are constrained by the duration of the trip, explained El Helaly, adding that vacations last around one to two weeks with the majority staying only one week. "Those who want to see both sides of Egypt are not a lot, it's not a typical program .It's specifically made to cater for a certain customer's needs, El Helaly said. "This program is usually a Nile cruise for Luxor and Aswan and then a trip to Sinai to visit Sharm or Hurghada, but this rarely happens, she added. With more tourists leaning towards leisure, Red Sea hotels and resorts developments have seen tremendous growth. As one of the country's primary revenue sources, tourism has both the public and private sector diversifying their line of work and offering a wide range of products. Resort communities such as El-Gouna serve as a model for more recent developments like Soma Bay and Port Ghalib. Eco-tourism is also making its mark, with projects such as Basata and camping trips to the Western Desert and its oases. Extensive advertising and marketing campaigns promoting resorts and chain hotels in international media have also been cited as a reason for the increase of leisure tourism in Egypt. "Resorts and chain hotels definitely have a bigger reach as they are featured in the brochures and travel vouchers given to tourists at travel agencies before coming to Egypt. However the Egyptian Tourism Development Authority is exerting a lot of effort, but after all it's easier to sell properties than antiquities, said El Helaly. Tourists coming to Egypt have a different opinion on the issue. "If you come to Egypt once, you will definitely come back again. It's like the saying 'If you drink from the Nile, you will keep coming back.' So I could come once for beaches and resorts, another for the historical sites and again for Cairo only, but I know that I'll come back, said Avalon, an American tourist.
