Dubai: Egypt expects to attract more than 14.7 million tourists in 2016, beating a 2010 record, according to the country’s top tourism official.
“I hope by 2016, we will be able to reach the levels, maybe surpass the levels of 2010,” Khaled Ramy, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, told reporters at a press conference at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Monday.
Egypt welcomed 14.7 million tourists in 2010. Last year’s visitor numbers, which reached 9.9 million, were still far behind what was achieved five years ago, Ramy said.
“So if we close this year with 11.5 million or 12 million tourists, then we are still lagging behind the record year of 2010,” he said.
He added that the country aims to increase tourism revenue to $26 billion (Dh95.5 billion) by 2020. Last year, it reached $7.3 billion, from $12.5 billion in 2010.
Egypt is going to achieve its 2020 tourism targets by increasing visitors’ length of stay through the promotion of twin centre holidays, and boost expenditure per tourist per day “from $77 in 2014 to $100”, according to Ramy.
The government will be launching advertising campaigns in the coming months to try to attract more visitors, he said. “At the moment, we are still pitching for a company … in August, we should have a company in place that will work for us for three years in 27 of our most important markets.”
Egypt’s tourism industry had waned after a revolution erupted on January 25, 2011, with anti-government protests having had scared visitors away. The industry, however, started picking up two year ago.
Ramy said that the country’s tourism industry is “very good”.
“In the first three months of the year, we had an increase in tourism from all over the world by 6.9 per cent [with visitor numbers reaching 2.15 million]. In March alone, we had an increase of 10.6 per cent, and in the first two weeks of April, we had an increase of 19 per cent,” he said.
Visitors from the UAE grew by 55 per cent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2014.
According to him, forward bookings to Egypt for the summer and winter months this year are up 15-20 per cent on the previous year.
On how much the government is spending for additional security of tourists, Ramy said: “Our Ministry of Interior is doing a very good job. They have their own budgets. There is no need to spend more. They have already enhanced security.”
In March, Egypt had set a target to attract 20 million visitors by 2020 and generate $20 billion in revenue.
In May last year, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism launched an ad campaign called “We miss you” to lure back visitors from the Gulf. The video features shopping malls, luxury hotels and dancers.
The country’s tourism promotion budget stood at $60 million-$70 million last year, while the advertising budget is $40 million-$50 million, he said.
However, the tourism budget this year could be cut by 10-15 per cent because it is shrinking its charter incentive programme for Sharm Al Shaikh and Hurghada, he said. “We have a charter incentive program that we usually put in place in times of crisis. I really don’t see that Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada have a crisis anymore.”
However, Egypt will keep up the charter incentive programme for places like Luxor and Aswan.
VISA ON ARRIVAL:
Ramy said that the government will have an electronic visa system in place in the next 8-10 months for all visitors. “You will apply and pay for it online, and print it,” he said.
Gulf nationals, however, will continue to get their passports stamped at the airport.
Last month, Egypt said that it would postpone the enforcement of a decision to stop issuing on-arrival visas for lone travellers, which was originally slated for mid-May.
There are 189,000 hotel rooms in Egypt and 154,000 under construction.
