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Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Shopping gala a success, but...
By Rehab SaadThe second Tourism and Shopping Festival came to an end last week, with some 5,000 shops having taken part, along with 163 hotels and tourist resorts and 137 restaurants.
The festival, held under the patronage of Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, took place in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, the northern coast and the Red Sea Governorate.
Participating hotels, shops and restaurants were offering large discounts for visitors to Egypt, and the national carrier, EgyptAir, was offering specially reduced ticket prices. Other events included competitions, with the opportunity to win prizes of luxury cars, domestic and electric appliances as well as trips to different parts of Egypt.
In addition to other smaller exhibitions throughout the country, the two main display centres were the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC) and the Fair Grounds in Nasr City.
Parallel to the official festival, other shopping malls, such as the World Trade Centre on the Corniche and Al-Aqqad Trade Centre in Nasr City, offered large discounts on products as well as prize competition promotions.
"The festival resulted in a big tourist movement to the country and recorded very high hotel occupancy rates," said Mamdouh El-Beltagui, minister of tourism. He added that about 357,000 tourists visited Egypt at the time of the festival, showing an increase of nearly 20 per cent over the previous year. "Hotel occupancy rates reached 83 per cent with an increase of 13.5 per cent over last year. Moreover, the area where the festival was held in the CICC and the Fair Grounds totalled 23,000 square metres with more than 800 sellers exhibiting. This is besides those who were exhibiting in Alexandria," he said.
"A number of countries participated in the festival for the first time, including China, Pakistan, Syria, Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and India," said Ahmed El-Gweily, minister of trade.
He went on to point out that the festival organisers had tried to remedy the shortcomings which emerged from last year's festival, and that this had contributed to this summer's boost to hotel figures and tourist commerce. "The strong cooperation between the ministries of trade and tourism, the Egyptian Tourist Authority, the Federation of Industries and the Chambers of Commerce played a great role in the success of this festival," El-Gweily said.
El-Beltagui pointed out that another factor contributing to the festival's success were the parties held on the sidelines of the festival in the different governorates. Alexandria in particular, he noted, had seen tourist figures rise on this account.
photo: Sherif Sonbol
"I believe that this year's festival has been successful. Over 650,000 visitors came to the CICC and the Fair Grounds. Thirty per cent of them were foreigners," said Ashraf Kara of Art Line Company, the organiser of the festival in Cairo and Giza.
He added that this year's festival was distinguished from the last by the far greater number and value of prizes offered in competition promotions. This year there were around 100 prizes to be won every week, besides those prizes offered by shopping malls not officially connected with the festival. Noteworthy among these prizes were gold items given up for competition by the goldsmiths' federation.
"There were also innovative ideas for prizes this year such as the big prize of 'Mr Kia' which were five Kia cars that were provided to one winner by the end of the festival in a big draw. There was also the 'airport car' that was provided only to foreigners and Egyptian expatriates," Kara said.
Kara emphasised that one of the major organisational differences between this year's festival and the last was that this year products were divided by type between the CICC and the Fair Grounds. In the CICC there were the stands of the social fund, tourist villages, gifts, electrical and domestic appliances, computers, electronics, furniture and children's games. In the Fair Grounds, there were the stalls of Arab and other foreign countries. More traditionally crafted items were on sale at this site, including clothes, textiles, and leather goods. It was here also that the festival focused on the wide range of foods available.
Most exhibitors in the CICC criticised this division of products. "I believe that this division is not right because all products should be provided in one place. The visitor will not come here in the CICC for something and then go to the Fair Grounds for another thing. We do not know why this split came about," said Mohamed Farouk, a leather seller.
Another source of discontent was the apparently low level of advertising prior to and during the event. "There was a complete lack of advertisements," said Maher Shafeeq, conceding that there were small ads for the festival. "But," he complained, "have you ever seen an advertisement saying that there is an exhibition in the CICC or the Fair Grounds?"
"There should have been an advertisement that said where the event is to let the public know more details. These advertisements should have been put in at a suitable time, before the [TV] Arabic serials for example," he added.
The timing of the festival also drew criticism from many of the exhibitors. "[The festival] must be either in the mid-year vacation or a month later from now. It is very hot now and people are in summer resorts. They are not interested in shopping in this hot weather," said Ayad Ayad, a seller at the CICC.
"I believe that there should be two festivals; one in the summer for shopping only and another one in February for tourism and shopping," Kara said.
These complaints did not greatly affect the consensus, however, that on balance the festival had been a great success. Tourism figures were up, although this is not the high season, and there had been a healthy boost to commercial trade.
