NEWS — HOT STORIES 4
Egypt vows to keep incentivising seats on UK flights to Sharm, Hurghada and Luxor The guarantee extends to charter and scheduled
operators, including easyJet. Ramy, former director of the Egyptian Tourist Office in London, took over as minister in March. He was in the UK to meet operators this week and said: “We are going to talk about how we go back to the numbers of 2010.” UK arrivals last year were 905,000, against 1.3 million in 2010. The minister confirmed Ryanair could begin Egypt flights other than from Ireland, but would face a $4,000 per flight levy as a third-party operator. Ramy said: “We are looking into this.” UK summer bookings were doing “well”, he said, and winter 2015-16 bookings “very well” following an 18% increase in arrivals year on year in January to April. But Ramy said: “We need to bring customers
Ian Taylor
Egypt will guarantee payment for half the seats on UK flights to Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and Luxor this summer and maintain the subsidy to Luxor this winter.
New tourism minister Khaled Ramy confirmed:
“We will continue incentivising the flights till October 31 from all UK airports. Incentives to Sharm will stop from November 1. But subsidies to Luxor and the Nile valley will remain. We may increase [incentives] to the Nile.”
HOT SHOTS: REASONS FOR READING THIS WEEK
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Fifty places up for grabs on the ORLANDO SUPER FAM, page 38
Win a CRUISE FOR TWO on Scenic Wonder, page 21
Bag one of 60 places on the VISIT CALIFORNIA SUPERFAM, pages 29 and 32
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“We are talking about how we go back to the numbers of 2010”
back to Aswan and Luxor.” He reported average occupancy of 70% in Hurghada and 60% in Sharm in April but 20% in Luxor. Ramy promised a major marketing campaign from August, saying it would have “a huge budget” and “demonstrate to the whole world we are back”. He described confusion over proposed changes to Egypt’s visa policy earlier this year as “a public mess”.
Agents urged not to view fams as freebies Hollie-Rae Merrick in Southampton
“If you’re serious about business, it’s unacceptable
Agents who go on fam trips and ship visits should regard them as a business opportunity and not “just a freebie”, the head of Clia UK & Ireland’s agent advisory board has said. Phil Nuttall, who is managing director of The Cruise Village, urged agents to make the most of the opportunities in the cruise industry and not to waste opportunities to drive business. He told delegates at the Selling Cruise Conference that agents should tweet, blog and take videos and pictures during fam trips. Nuttall said educationals should never be
regarded as just “a freebie”. “There is a huge opportunity for lines to relook at
fam trips for agents prepared to use social media and blog during the cruise or when they get home,” he said.
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travelweekly.co.uk — 28 May 2015
to take a freebie and do nothing. As agents, we need to experience a cruise as a passenger, but we have a responsibility and duty to report and share these experiences with our customers.” He said agents should take up all the ship visits available and use the knowledge gleaned when making bookings. Nuttall encouraged delegates to
“listen and learn” everything about Clia and its cruise line partners. He said those not tracking new-to- cruise bookings were making a mistake. “Some [customers] won’t tell you they’re virgin cruisers because they’re
scared of asking what they perceive to be a silly question,” said Nuttall. “So make sure you know about every new-to-cruise passenger you book, and that you have a process to engage with them.” ❯ Selling Cruise Conference, page 12
MORE HOT STORIES
met operators in London this week
Khaled Ramy
PICTURE: REUTERS/AMR DALSH
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