Travco Group is working on founding four hotels in various tourist cities and is implementing a plan to renovate its fleet of tourist transport from local products. According to Hamed El Chiaty, the company's chairman, $120m are allocated to create four new hotels in the cities of Marsa Alam, Safaga, Hurghada, and Marsa Matrouh, with 1,200 rooms each costing around $100,000. The company intends to complete the construction of the four hotels by the end of 2018 to be ready to receive guests in early 2019. He said that the company is seeking loans and bank facilities to finance projects to be completed on time and will begin negotiations with banks during the coming period. Travco is one of the largest tourism companies in Egypt and the region. It owns 43 hotels in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and has the brand Steinerberger specialized in hotel management. He continued stating that the company is renewing their tourist transportation fleet which consists of 750 buses; therefore, they sell their old buses and buy new ones. Travco contracted with Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles (MCV), a specialist bus manufacturer to use its local fleet development products, to receive 50 buses next month, representing the first batch of new buses. The fleet development plan will be completed within 24 months and will be financed by Travco by paying the difference between old and new units. El Chiaty called for intensifying promotional campaigns for Egypt abroad, especially in traditional markets such as Italy, Germany, England, Ukraine, Poland, and Scandinavian countries. He believes that the current campaigns are insufficient. The role of the private sector in promotion is to attend conferences and tourism exhibitions, visit companies, and renew the product it offers. He added that the crisis of Russian tourism to Egypt is political, that the tourism sector cannot intervene, and that the crisis should be solved politically.
