Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Promoting the big lake

By Rehab Saad

The first Mediterranean Travel Fair (MTF), inaugurated last week on 1-3 March, was regarded by most exhibitors and visitors as a propitious birth for what is to become an annual event in Egypt.

Little wonder. The event had the government's full support. The Ministry of Tourism and the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) invited a large number of international buyers and decision-makers; EgyptAir offered massive discounts on its ticket prices for participants; even the private sector played a major role, providing free accommodation to top officials and exhibitors, while travel agencies organised tours before and after the fair.

The success of the event was due in large part to Reed Travel Exhibitions, the professional company brought in to organise the show. With its extensive experience organising tourist events like MTF (including the World Travel Market [WTM] in London and the Arabian Travel Market [ATM] in Dubai), Reed was a natural choice.

The aim of the MTF is not to promote Egypt alone, but the whole of the Mediterranean, which incorporates the key markets of Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Cyprus and Turkey. Tom Nutely, managing director of Reed Travel, said that the volume of tourism in the Mediterranean "urges us to have a regional event. Instead of having small, separate markets that promote individual countries, we decided to have a single large event to promote the whole region."

The exhibition attracted 27 countries, which booked a total of 130 booths on an area of 4000 square metres. Among the countries represented were Bahrain, China, Cyprus, Greece, India, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Tunisia. In addition, travel agencies were present from countries as varied as the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Malta, Saudi Arabia and the US. Some 1,000 international buyers representing 87 countries descended on Cairo, boosted by a large number of visitors, both Egyptian and foreign.

Tourism experts regard these figures as "great"; many of the famous international fairs started with much fewer exhibitors. Amir Fahim, Reed Travel's representative in Egypt, noted that ITB [Germany's widely-known travel fair] in Berlin "attracted only six countries in its first round". But organisers of the event are aware that there is room for improvement at MTF; Egypt will have to work hard to improve the event in future years.

Minister of Tourism Mamdouh El-Beltagui said in his opening speech: "By displaying our diversified product to tour operators and travel agents at a time characterised by global mergers in the tourism sector, we have a unique opportunity to offer joint programmes, incorporating all our tourist potential with other tourism-generating countries."

The combined Mediterranean tourist "products" do in fact complement one other -- rather than compete. Ahmed Mustafa, manager of the Turkish travel agency Travel Bee, explained that his company previously targeted the European and the American markets, but now it is targeting the Middle East countries, particularly Egypt. "This is the first time for us to come to Egypt to promote our country," Mustafa said. "The fair is strong. There are many people who visited my booth and asked about my programmes. At this stage it is just talk -- no contracts so far -- nevertheless, I still believe that my presence here is important."

Mediterranean countries seized the opportunity of participating in Egypt's first travel fair and started to promote the region to attract as many travellers as possible. Among participants are Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, and Tunisia

Tourism in Turkey was adversely affected last year by reports of terrorist attacks by Kurds in the capital, as well as the earthquake that destroyed large areas of the country. "When the terrorist attacks started, many travellers who were planning to come to Turkey cancelled their trips," Mustafa said. "Then came the earthquake near the capital, which made a lot of tourists stay away or go to neighbouring countries for their holidays. Before these occurrences we received about 10 million tourists annually. Last year we received only four million.

"We have had to work hard to regain our travellers by going abroad with brochures and videotapes to show the world our product; we organised a lot of fam [familiarisation] trips for journalists and travellers to show them that [Turkey is] a safe country. I think we have succeeded and we are expecting about 14 million tourists this year," Mustafa added.

A new tourist destination that participated in the event was Palestine. A number of Palestinian travel agencies, as well as the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism, shared a large pavilion to display their product. "It is a good thing to have such a big fair in Egypt," said Abdullah Hegazi, undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism. "For us, Egypt is a neighbouring market that is easily accessible. Although this is the first year of the Mediterranean Travel Fair, it attracted a large number of foreign and Arab countries, which augurs well for its future success."

According to Nasser Zaatara, assistant general manager of the Palestinian travel agency Zaatara Company, numerous verbal agreements were made through the MTF. "I am optimistic that I will do good business here," he said.

Hegazi said that the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism participated with the private sector to promote Palestinian destinations like Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. He suggested that Palestine could get up to three million tourists annually, if the Israeli authorities do not close the borders. "One of the problems facing tourism in our country arises when the Israeli authorities close our borders for security reasons," Hegazi said. "Tourism aims to bring nations closer, but tourism in our country is still suffering from obstacles. And it is not only tourism in Palestine that is affected; it also affects Israel, because we both have the same tourist map. Pilgrims who go to Israel want to complete their religious rituals in our country and vice versa."

Hegazi explained that stalling in the peace process has affected tourist investments in Palestine. "We need to have sound infrastructure and quality services as far as hotels, transportation, shops and labourers are concerned," he said. "We have a tenth of the services and infrastructure that are offered in Israel, and thus we receive only a tenth of the tourist income they receive. I believe that once we complete our infrastructure projects, we will have a bigger role."

Greece was one of the countries that had a strong presence at the event. The National Tourism Organisaton of Greece, as well as a number of Greek travel agencies participated. Spyridon Vallianos, manager of the National Tourism Organisation of Greece, regards travel fairs as the best way to promote a country's tourist product, as they provide an opportunity for people to meet and discuss issues that are important in the industry.

"The organisation of the event was fine, but there were some setbacks," Vallianos said. "For example, the official gala dinner was held in an open area at the Mena House Hotel and started at 9.30pm. The weather was extremely cold and many people were forced to leave by 10.30pm. Such a big event should not have been held in the open air in winter. Moreover, there were no official speeches for the guests. Perhaps the minister of tourism should have given a presentation to welcome the attendees."

Vallianos said that about 25,000 Greeks visit Egypt annually, whereas there are only 5,000 Egyptians who travel to Greece -- 80 per cent of whom are businessmen. "One of the reasons that Egyptians refrain from visiting our country is difficulty in getting a visa," Vallianos remarked. "Even businessmen have difficulty. In order to revive tourism between our countries, and in order to guarantee a good flow of Egyptian tourists to Greece, these visa problems have to be resolved," he said.

For countries like Jordan, the tourist product is tightly connected to the appeal of the whole region, including neighbouring countries. Mazen Tantash of Trust Tours Agency of Jordan explained that the main reason for his participation in the fair was that he wanted to promote the region to foreign countries. "I am not here to sell Jordan alone; I came to sell Jordan and Syria, or Jordan and Lebanon, or Jordan and Israel," he said.

Egyptians like to travel to Jordan for a one-day tour from Nuweiba to Aqaba, from where they are transported to Petra, and there are also charter flights from Sharm Al-Sheikh to Petra. "The MTF did not include some of the countries of importance to me, like Syria and the United Arab Emirates," Tantash said. "I am extremely surprised that a country like Syria did not participate. There are rumours that it did not do so because of the presence of some Israeli travel agents in the event. This is a pity because it is an important market."

Tantash suggested that the European presence at the fair was not strong enough. "There should have been better marketing for the event in the European market, because [Europe] is a target for most travel agencies here," Tantash said. "I did not come here to sell Jordan to Egyptians, Lebanese and Syrians, but to the European market," he stressed.

As for Egypt, a large part of the MTF grounds were booked by Egyptian governorates, such as Assiut, Minya and the Fayoum. Alexandria booked a big area in the middle of the hall where all major hotels and restaurants in Alexandria were advertised.

Assiut governorate, where Deir Al-Maharraq and Deir Dronka are located, took advantage of the MTF to promote itself as the final leg of the "route of the Holy Family" through Egypt. "We are trying to put Assiut on the tourist map," said Hussein Abdel-Hafez of the governorate of Assiut. "We are trying to focus on the Flight, which the Ministry of Tourism is promoting these days. This will hopefully bring us lots of tourists in the future," he added.

Abdel-Hafez pointed out that Assiut also has a lot of Pharaonic and Islamic monuments of historical importance. "Assiut has most of the necessary tourist facilities. We have good roads, a good railway connection, good airport and high standard hotels. We currently have two weekly flights to Assiut and there are plans to have regular flights on a daily basis." According to official statistics, Assiut received nearly 14,000 tourists in 1991, which rose to about 17,500 in 1998.

Sahl Hashish, a new resort in Egypt, used the MTF to make a place for itself in Egypt's tourist industry. 17 kilometres south of Hurghada, Sahl Hashish is a gigantic project on the Red Sea that is expected to be double the size of Hurghada. Like Al-Gouna, also on the Red Sea coast, Sahl Hashish is endeavoring to establish itself as a "tourist community", rather than a tourist "resort".

"The project will be implemented in three phases," said Mohamed El-Wakeel of the Egyptian Resorts Company. "The first, which will include 14 hotels, two golf courses, a marina, an 'old town' in oriental style and a desert village modelled in Bedouin style, will be completed in two years. The rest of the project will extend ten or twelve years.

"Our contribution to the fair was significant because we wanted people to get acquainted with the facilities already in the area of Sahl Hashish. We needed strong exposure to attract investors," El-Wakeel added.

Kamel Mursi, public relations supervisor of the Sahl Hashish resort, was critical of the fact that most of the companies that contributed to the MFT were Egyptian. Even multinational hotel chains, like Sheraton and Accor, were represented by their Egyptian branches. "I do not think that Egypt holds such an event to let Egyptians get together," Mursi said. "I believe that in the coming years, we should concentrate more on foreigners and we Egyptians should participate as visitors who benefit from the event."

But Declan Hurley, director of sales and marketing at Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel, said that one of the main advantages of the fair was that members of the hotel industry had a chance to meet each other. "This is what trade is all about," Hurley said. "If I wanted to meet up with such a large number of hotels and travel agencies it could take me a year. Here, in only two days, I could meet them all."

Hurley said that he made a lot of contacts during the MTF that he believes will bring future business. "Our booth included all the Intercontinental hotels of the region and this gave us the opportunity to promote them together, especially our new properties in Sharm Al-Sheikh and Bethlehem," he said.

It takes time to see if an exhibition is a success or not. Tom Nutely of Reed Travel estimates that it takes three years to establish an event like MTF. "I feel that within three years, we will double the size of the MTF, as well as the number of visitors," he said. "We have established a good base to work on. Through the MTF we have learnt many lessons and I believe we can make it better next year. ... We'll never stop and we'll never be satisfied."

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