TravTalk India Online Magazine
Egypt Tourism aims to up its arrivals from India this year to touch at least 1,40,000 – its highest number from the country so far – in the hope that travellers will return to Egypt with improved political stability.
Hazel Jain
Egypt Tourism is expecting to welcome back tourists from India it had lost in the aftermath of political instability in the country. Optimism is running high and it is evident in the target numbers that it has set for itself this year.
Ismail Amer, Egyptian Tourism Counsellor, Egyptian Tourism Office in Mumbai, says, “In 2017, we received 1,03,000 visitors from India and this was a 30 per cent increase as compared to the previous year. In the first quarter of 2018, the numbers have already shown an increase by 25-27 per cent. The market is stable and we expect that if we keep the same pace, we can achieve 1,30,000-1,40,000 Indian tourists by the end of this year. This will mean that we would have fully recovered the aftermath of our problems. We hope this will be a peak year for us. Our previous peak year was in 2010 before the revolution when we received 1,14,000 visitors from India.”
In the first quarter of 2018, the numbers have increased by 25-27%. We expect that if we keep the same pace, we can achieve 1,30,000-1,40,000 Indian tourists by the end of this year
The largest contributor to this growth is mostly the Christian pilgrimage and leisure segments. In 2016, Egypt received about 79,000 tourists from India. In 2015, the destination started to recover with 76,000 visitors, in increase from 2014 figures which rested at 60,000. “The 2017 figures are the largest significant number we have received from India in terms of volume,” Amer adds.
Egypt Tourism, led by Amer, recently conducted a four-city roadshow which includes Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kochi. The Mumbai roadshow included two separate segments on the sidelines of the main show – an Experts Meet for the corporate MiCE workshop followed by an Experts Meet on film workshop which invited key individuals from the film and entertainment industry.
“We are doing roadshows every six months. The first show was in May 2017 that covered Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. In January 2018, we covered Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. This year, we replaced Delhi with Kochi because the main target segment is the Christian pilgrims and it is what we want to continue pushing this year,” he adds. Egypt wants to promote itself as a stand-alone for six to seven nights pilgrimage destination instead of being part of the main tour.
The NTO also has 30 per cent higher budgets this year as compared to the previous year and plans to undertake B2C activities to reach the direct consumer through food festivals, etc. “This shows how important this market has become for us. In 2016, the average length of stay was about 5.5 tourist nights per pax. But in 2017, it rose to around seven nights per pax. We have managed to introduce the beach mix which means tourists take the classic tour along with Red Sea beach activities. Moreover, according to the latest figures, Indians are the second-highest spenders in terms of the international market, preceded only by Japanese tourists. While the Japanese spend about USD 150 per pax, per night, an Indian will spend about USD 102 per night. India is a high spender market for us because Indians travel on regular flights, buy more activities and excursions, and shop,” Amer reveals. Egypt Tourism is also on the look-out for a brand ambassador to promote the country in India.
Traveller Spends
- While the Japanese spend about USD 150 per pax, per night, an Indian will spend about USD 102 per night
