12 - 18 July 2001
Issue No.542
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 12 - 18 July 2001 Issue No.542 |
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Do you want to shop?
For the fourth consecutive year, a month-long tourism and shopping festival will be held in five Egyptian governorates. Rehab Saad finds out what's on sale
Preparations for the annual tourism and shopping festival, scheduled for 20 July to 20 August, are well under way. Five governorates will take part in this year's event, namely, Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, the Red Sea and -- for the first time -- Ismailia. During the festival, shops, hotels, travel agencies, restaurants and the national carrier, EgyptAir, will offer tremendous discounts to tourists.
Shoppers are expecting discounts during the festival
photo: Mohamed Mos'ad
The centre of festival activity is in Nasr City at the International Fairground and the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC). At these locations, shops will display their wares at rented booths. Shoppers can expect to find a wide variety of goods, including clothing, leather items, domestic appliances, carpets, chandeliers, reproductions of antiques -- just to name a few items that will be priced to sell. However, retailers do not need to set up shop at either of these two exhibition halls to participate.
Shoppers can expect to see stickers displayed in stores throughout the participating governorates indicating that the shops are official festival participants. At these shops customers can expect to find discounts of between 10 and 50 per cent.
This year approximately 1,450 shops are expected to participate along with 220 hotels and restaurants and 50 travel agencies. Discussing business participation in the event, Mohamed Osman, deputy chairman of the festival's higher executive committee, said, "Figures show that there is a 20 per cent increase in the number of hotels taking part in the event this year and a 35 per cent increase in the number of tourist establishments. However, the number of shops has dropped slightly compared to last year because of the implementation of the second and third phases of the sales tax, which has made some retailers reluctant to participate."
Bookings for booths at the two exhibition locations in Nasr City are over 80 per cent, said tourist officials. Gold vendors are expected to take part in the festival, but the number that will participate is still unknown. A meeting with goldsmiths will be held in the next few days after which the number of participating retailers will be announced.
The tourism area of Nuweiba- Taba in south Sinai will be much in focus during this summer's festival. "We are going to make use of the influx of travellers during the festival to promote this area which saw the number of tourists drop due to the violence in the occupied territories," Osman said.
He added that 20,000 brochures about the area have been printed to be distributed during the festival. Travel agencies are offering discounted tours to south Sinai resorts, and some hotels will be offering free accommodation, meaning that travellers will only pay for their food, beverages and other services. EgyptAir will offer discounts on flights to Taba and will increase its weekly service there from two to three trips.
Some 30 galas featuring Arab singers and entertainers will be held in conjunction with the festival. An opening ceremony will be held at the Cairo Citadel while closing festivities will take place in Hurghada. Other events include water skiing shows to be performed by an American group from Florida. The Nile in Cairo, the Mediterranean in Alexandria and El-Temsah Lake in Ismailia are the three venues for these displays. Moreover, an Egyptian alley will be recreated at the International Fairground to give tourists a chance to experience a glimpse of traditional Egypt.
During a recent meeting of the higher executive committee of the festival, Minister of Tourism Mamdouh El-Beltagui said, "All indicators suggest that the festival will be successful this year. The regularity of the festival, which is held at the same time each year, is one of the elements of its success. Moreover, we began marketing the event very early this year locally and abroad through travel agencies and Egyptian satellite channels."
El-Beltagui stressed that credibility is the most important element determining the event's success. "The tourist should feel that he is being provided with real discounts, whether in shops, or on accommodations or air flights." He added that there will be telephone hot-lines to receive any complaints from customers, whether Egyptians or foreigners.
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