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Egypt bolsters weakened tourism industry
Egypt will exempt hotels from paying contributions to the country's tourism promotion authority and will cut fees paid by charter flights to help its tourism industry cope with the global financial crisis.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:58 January 6, 2009
Cairo: Egypt will exempt hotels from paying contributions to the country's tourism promotion authority and will cut fees paid by charter flights to help its tourism industry cope with the global financial crisis.
"The minister [of tourism, Zuheir Garrana] has agreed to exempt hotel establishments from tourism promotion fees which the ministry collects from the hotels to lessen their burdens during the financial crisis," state news agency MENA quoted the assistant minister of tourism, Hesham Za'azou, as saying.
Egypt's tourism industry, the country's top hard currency earner, has started to feel the pinch of the global financial crisis, with hotel bookings down 30 per cent in January 2009 compared to the same month in 2008.
MENA said the ministry of tourism would also set up a working group to deal with the fallout of the crisis, with measures being reviewed and changed every three months.
Za'azou added Egypt's aviation minister had agreed to reduce landing and take-off fees, as well as ground handling fees for charter flights, and waive them entirely for charter flights that make 11 trips to designated destinations in the span of three months.
The ministry would also change its broadcast advertisement campaigns to focus on promoting Egypt as an affordable holiday destination.
The Egyptian central bank said in December revenue from tourism in the first quarter of the 2008/09 fiscal year, which started in July, rose 15.2 per cent to some $3.3 billion (Dh12.12 billion).
Reham Al Desouki, a senior economist at investment bank Beltone Financial, said tourism revenue for the entire fiscal year could stay unchanged at $10.6 billion.
Tourism represents 6.6 per cent of Egypt's GDP and is the country's main hard currency earner, Desouki said.
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