Al-Ahram Weekly | Economy | Shopping festival delivers

		29 August - 4 Sept. 2002 Issue No. 601 Economy	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Shopping festival delivers
The performance of this year's shopping festival that ended last week has been impressive. Eman Youssef writes

This year's tourism and shopping festival has attracted an unprecedented number of visitors. The festival, held in the Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Ismailia and Red Sea governorates, brought about a noticeable increase in tourist and trade activity.
Minister of Tourism Mamdouh El-Beltagy said almost 420,000 tourists came to Egypt during the first three weeks of the festival, with an increase of 21.5 per cent compared to the same period last year. The figure includes nearly 123,000 tourists from Arab countries -- a rise of 22.6 per cent over last year.
Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade statistics reveal an increase of 25 per cent in sales profit at this year's event compared to last year. This year's total festival sales profit has been placed at LE160 million.
"Tourism is considered a major source of national income," Mohamed Saleh, chairman of the General Organisation for International Exhibitions and Fairs (GOIF), said. The large number of visitors to Egypt this summer reflects the positive foreign perception of the country's political and economic climate. He also said that the quality of local products at the fair was higher than in previous years. "We had to open the doors to the public till midnight due to the large number of shoppers" Saleh said.
Marketing the festival was a major success factor this year. Abdel-Moneim Seoudi, chairman of the festival's executive committee and chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, said that to attract visitors, all participating stores, airline companies, restaurants, theatres and hotels offered substantial discounts. More importantly, during the festival's duration, customs procedures were facilitated, sales taxes was refunded to shoppers and prizes were raffled off.
Ahmed Ali from Jordan said his family is accustomed to visiting Egypt each year at the time of the festival. "We benefit from the large discounts and the sales tax refunds upon departure," he said.
Hend Mansour, a 23-year-old teacher, said she preferred to shop in places that participated in the festival. "I knew this is where the discounts would be available and where I may be eligible for a prize."
An information centre equipped with multiple telephone lines to guide visitors was available 24 hours a day. The festival -- one of the largest in the Arab world -- had the complete support of all concerned ministries and organisations.
For a month, more than 2,600 shops participating in the festival displayed a vast array of discounted products, ranging from computers and building materials to textiles, leather goods and cosmetics.

Last-minute shoppers photo: Salah Ibrahim

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