regions africa
African markets, where market share has increased from 18% to 30%. Central and Eastern European and former Soviet countries have also registered important increases. Lithuania, for example, sent 66,000 tourists to Egypt last year and Ukraine is up by 90%. Traditional source markets Germany, Italy and the UK have shown steady growth. Germany, which has long promoted Hurghada, is now four times the size of the UK market. Overall bed nights increased 156% in 2017 compared with 2016 and El Ezabi says he felt “positive and energised” about the future. “We will be back to 2014 levels within two years. Russian carriers are returning to Cairo and hotel occupancy rates have recovered to pre-2015 levels.” Luxor and Aswan have sourced new markets since the downturn from the UK. The UK used to be the number one source market for Nile tours but has now been overtaken by China. There is still a question mark over Sharm el Sheikh, and El Ezabi concedes it would be a while before the resort was back for all markets. “Record levels will happen again when we have Sharm but who knows when that will be?”
Historical attractions While he acknowledges that Luxor
tended to find more favour with the British market, he says the new Grand Egyptian Museum should encourage ancient history lovers to spend more time in Cairo. It is due to open partially in December.
UK arrivals to Egypt
200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000
0 2014 56 wtm insights summer 2018 2015 2016 2017 Next Greencar, Platform for Electromobility, Transparency Market Research
Sources: EV-Volumes, UBS, Technavio, Research and Markets, Source: Egyptian State Tourist Authority
Hurghada offers more modern pursuits
A traditional felucca on the Nile at Aswan
“The Grand
Egyptian Museum will be spectacular and a real hub for Egyptologists,” El Ezabi says. “It will be the largest archaeology museum in the world. It will add at least half a day, if not a full day in Cairo,
especially for Europeans.” “The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, now partly open, is no less important,” he says. “At Cairo Opera House you can enjoy Egyptian and international productions, and right next door is the Egyptian Modern Art Museum. You really can enjoy modern as well as ancient aspects of Cairo.”
Notable hotel developments in Cairo include the first St Regis in Egypt, the Marriott Mena House, facing the Pyramids, and the first Waldorf Astoria in North Africa, due to open in 2019.
Latest archaeological
digs and finds
There are more than 400 archaeological expeditions at work in the desert and elsewhere in Egypt – they continued throughout the Arab Spring. They provide interesting discoveries to this day, among them:
• New technology has revealed how the Nile has changed course over the past 5,000 years.
• Archaeologists discovered a papyrus – the diary of Merer, an official involved in the construction of Giza’s Great Pyramid – which described how the stones were transported on the Nile river.
• A team led by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago excavating Tell Edfu discovered an official administration centre for the old kingdom dating back to 2400 BC.
• An extremely rare, well-preserved alabaster statue of Queen Tiye, the grandmother of Tutankhamun, was found in Luxor.
• An unexplored 3,500-year-old tomb near Luxor revealed a mummy wrapped in linen, suggesting a high-ranking official or powerful person. The tomb also had bright wall paintings, with the original colours still visible.
• Further discoveries have yielded the earliest writing signs in the desert, more evidence that ancient Egyptians bore tattoos, and the oldest breweries in the world at Tell el-Farkha.
wtm.com
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