Egypt's hard-hit tourism sector is facing a new start after a “difficult” year, but there is reason for optimism, the Egyptian tourism minister said on Tuesday.
Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said at a press conference ahead of the ITB travel trade show, which opens on Wednesday, that Egypt’s invitation to be a guest of honor was a “milestone.”
After German Economics Minister Philipp Roesler inaugurated the show, Abdel Nour said, “It’s a new beginning at the right time after 2011, which was a turning point.”
He said that “it would be an understatement to say it was a difficult year” for the tourism industry, more than a year after the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
But he said there were “positive signs” of better times ahead while acknowledging that much remained to be done.
“The road will be long and sometimes bumpy, but we are confident,” he said.
“We are seeing some positive signs,” he added, pointing to the economy.
And he voiced regret that media attention focused on events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, which he said did not represent the situation in other parts of the country, where calm prevailed.
Since early 2011, Egypt’s economy has been weakened by a fall in tourism and a collapse of foreign exchange reserves.
About 10,644 exhibitors from 187 countries are due to take part in the ITB show which runs until Sunday.
On Tuesday, Hurghada International Airport has received 32,000 European tourists over the past four days. They arrived on board 192 flights.
Airport manager Samy Abdel Moneim said incoming tourists’ numbers surged this week comparing to the last week. He said Russians made up the largest number of visitors, followed by Germans, Scandinavians and the British.
He said the current incoming tourism rate is likely to persist until the end of March.
Hatem Mounir, a senior official at the Tourism Ministry, said the present period is witnessing a surge in hotel occupancy to 58 percent, describing the rate as reasonable given the country’s current circumstances.
Mounir said Hurghada’s hotels have recorded the highest occupancy rates, with the percentage reaching 80 percent at some five-star hotels.
On Sunday, a report by the Central Agency for Public Mobility and Statistics said the number of international tourists to Egypt declined during the last quarter of 2011 by 29.2 percent, at 2.9 million compared to 4.2 million at the same time in 2010.
