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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Jan. - 3 Feb. 1999 Issue No. 414 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Jan. - 3 Feb. 1999 Issue No. 414
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Focus Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Tourism back on track
By Niveen Wahish
Despite the several ups and downs suffered by tourism in Egypt since 1986, growth in tourism investments has never halted. This, according to studies made by the Tourist Development Agency (TDA), can be attributed to the fact that despite the drop in tourism which follows any terrorist incident, business has always managed to bounce back and has kept an average steady growth rate of eight per cent.Based on these facts, and with the continuous efforts made by the government to promote tourism in Egypt, more than 16 million tourists are expected to visit the land of the Pharaohs by the year 2017, compared to four million in 1996/97. This would require, according to the TDA, an increase in Egypt's total hotel capacity to 388,000 rooms from the current 77,000 rooms.
According to TDA data, around 18 projects are currently under construction in Cairo alone, including a number of five-star hotels. Among these projects are an extension to the Cairo Meridien, the Nile Plaza Four Seasons Hotel in Garden City, a new Marriott resort outside Heliopolis and the Conrad International Cairo.
The Conrad, with its opening scheduled next month, will be the first hotel to be built in the five-star market in Cairo since the late 1980s when the Semiramis Intercontinental was inaugurated.
A total of $140 million has been invested in the hotel by Arab International Bank, Banque Misr, Misr Insurance Company and Misr International Bank as well as Conrad International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hilton Hotel Corporation based in Los Angeles.
According to Mark Elawadi, area general manager for Egypt of Conrad International, the idea of the 619-room hotel sprouted five years ago. Despite various terrorist incidents, foremost of which was the 1997 massacre of 58 tourists in Luxor, the construction schedule did not waver. However, the financial projections of the hotel were inevitably affected by such events. Following the Luxor incident, hotel occupancy rates in Luxor and Aswan plummeted to almost zero. And while occupancy rates in Cairo were supposed to reach 82 per cent at the end of 1997, they in fact amounted to merely 61 per cent.
"We have factored the Luxor incident into our projections, and are cautious in approaching 1999. But we see the occupancy curve moving up again, slowly, but surely," Elawadi said.
He added that as with any new hotel, the planners are looking for the third year to be the stabilising one. "We are looking at having a projected occupancy of 50 per cent in 1999," he affirmed.
According to Elawadi, investments will continue to be made in the tourism sector: "You cannot stop investment or progress because of a couple of incidents."
Experts believe that Egypt's tourist industry has significant untapped potential, but as Elawadi said, it is not just a matter of providing hotels and services. Increasing tourism revenue is going to come from multiple improvements in areas including infrastructure, airline schedules, traffic management and environment. "Only then will we be able to attract more tourists."
