Adel el Masry, Director of Egypt Tourism Authority, is upbeat on his country’s tourism prospects, which had taken a hit following the political uprising in the country. In an exclusive interaction with b&e’s Dipshikha Das, Masry talks about how Egypt’s tourism is back on its feet and what his country is doing to promote tourism
B&E: The political turmoil caused by the Arab Spring, the subsequent fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime and the current fragile state of affairs in Egypt have taken a heavy toll on tourism in the country. What are you doing to help it bounce back?
Adel Masry (AM): Tourism to Egypt is returning to stability after a long movement for political democracy. Egypt is receiving immense support from several nations who are helping improve the situation by lifting travel advisories against Egypt. The Egypt Tourism office in India is aggressively taking part in all important trade fairs and travel expos for giving maximum exposure to and showcasing the country’s tourism industry to the entire South-east Asia market.
B&E: In the Egypt tourism’s scheme of things, where does India fit in?
AM: Tourism is an important driver of our economy and the annual growth in this sector has risen to around 30%. Last year we received 16 million tourists, and earned around $11,000 million. Currently tourism contributes approximately 11.8% to Egypt’s GDP. In 2009, we had 87,000 Indian tourists and, in 2010, it stood at 1,14,000, up 36% against the previous year. We are expecting at least a 35% increase by the end of this year.
B&E: After the turmoil that your country has been through, how difficult do you think it would be to lure foreign tourists to Egypt?
AM: It’s true that we suffered a huge loss in terms of tourist flows from Asia and elsewhere in the wake of the people’s movement that Egypt faced. However, we have been taking steps to lure the Indian tourists back. We have doubled our tourism promotion budget in India from a half million dollars to $1million in the current year. We are aggressively targeting Indian tourists in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur. But it’s not just the big cities but also the tier II cities we are looking at now. We have adopted an experimental marketing approach by organising tours for our travel partners to witness the destination in the aftermath of the political unrest and see for themselves that Egypt is now once again as safe and secure for tourists as it has always been in the past. Also, we have increased the limit on baggage allowance for tourists travelling through Egypt Air as well as increased the frequency of our flights to five days in a week from Mumbai to Cairo and vice versa. Post the movement in Egypt, the “Tahrir Square in Cairo” has generated a lot of interest for people to see and visit the place since it was the epicentre of all activities during the movement. We had recently organised FAM trips for the Indian media to witness and see how Egypt has undergone a change after the democratic movement. Also, to raise our profile in India, we have participated at important tourism events like SATTE in Delhi, TTF & OTM in Mumbai, and the recently held PATA travel mart in Delhi.
B&E: The political turmoil caused by the Arab Spring, the subsequent fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime and the current fragile state of affairs in Egypt have taken a heavy toll on tourism in the country. What are you doing to help it bounce back?
Adel Masry (AM): Tourism to Egypt is returning to stability after a long movement for political democracy. Egypt is receiving immense support from several nations who are helping improve the situation by lifting travel advisories against Egypt. The Egypt Tourism office in India is aggressively taking part in all important trade fairs and travel expos for giving maximum exposure to and showcasing the country’s tourism industry to the entire South-east Asia market.
B&E: In the Egypt tourism’s scheme of things, where does India fit in?
AM: Tourism is an important driver of our economy and the annual growth in this sector has risen to around 30%. Last year we received 16 million tourists, and earned around $11,000 million. Currently tourism contributes approximately 11.8% to Egypt’s GDP. In 2009, we had 87,000 Indian tourists and, in 2010, it stood at 1,14,000, up 36% against the previous year. We are expecting at least a 35% increase by the end of this year.
B&E: After the turmoil that your country has been through, how difficult do you think it would be to lure foreign tourists to Egypt?
AM: It’s true that we suffered a huge loss in terms of tourist flows from Asia and elsewhere in the wake of the people’s movement that Egypt faced. However, we have been taking steps to lure the Indian tourists back. We have doubled our tourism promotion budget in India from a half million dollars to $1million in the current year. We are aggressively targeting Indian tourists in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur. But it’s not just the big cities but also the tier II cities we are looking at now. We have adopted an experimental marketing approach by organising tours for our travel partners to witness the destination in the aftermath of the political unrest and see for themselves that Egypt is now once again as safe and secure for tourists as it has always been in the past. Also, we have increased the limit on baggage allowance for tourists travelling through Egypt Air as well as increased the frequency of our flights to five days in a week from Mumbai to Cairo and vice versa. Post the movement in Egypt, the “Tahrir Square in Cairo” has generated a lot of interest for people to see and visit the place since it was the epicentre of all activities during the movement. We had recently organised FAM trips for the Indian media to witness and see how Egypt has undergone a change after the democratic movement. Also, to raise our profile in India, we have participated at important tourism events like SATTE in Delhi, TTF & OTM in Mumbai, and the recently held PATA travel mart in Delhi.
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