by Naglaa Ghonaim
This year’s summer holiday season witnessed a significant increase in the number of holidaymakers compared with the past four years, particularly in tourist governorates and Alexandria, where hotel occupancy rates increased dramatically.
Sami Mahmoud, the head of the Tourism Promotion Authority, said the first seven months of 2015 witnessed a remarkable 15 per cent increase in Arab tourism compared to the same period in 2014, as well as an increase in international tourism of 6 per cent.
He added that the occupancy rates over the past few days have been quite different, realising varying percentages particularly during public holidays after the launching of campaigns targeting Egyptians and the Arab states.
Saudi Arabia topped the list of Arab countries in the number of tourists during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period last year, by 67.2 per cent.
In May 2015, the number of Saudi tourists coming to Egypt rose by 58.2 per cent. In addition, Saudi Arabia was ranked fourth in terms of the number of tourists and nights spent in Egypt in May 2015.
The number of Kuwaiti tourists increased during the first five months of this year by 48.6 per cent compared with the same period of last year. A growth was also seen in May 2015 of 74.4 per cent.
Major General Ahmed Hamdy, the vice president of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, stressed that the Egyptians have already succeeded in reviving tourism in some tourist cities, as the occupancy rate in Taba hotels reached 79 per cent during the vacations season.
As for Alexandria, hotel occupancy rates rose to 95 per cent, and 85 per cent in Matrouh, despite the increase in hotel prices by around 25 per cent during the current period, compared with the same period last year.
He noted that the occupancy rate in Sharm al-Sheikh and Hurghada also rose, but the share of the Egyptians in the occupancy rate has reached 40 per cent since the beginning of the holiday season due to the high temperatures.
He also said that the rate of hotel occupancy in Hurghada exceeded 85 per cent, with Egyptians occupancy rates at 50 per cent, an increase of up to 20 per cent compared with the same period last year.
In the city of Sharm El-Sheikh, the occupancy rate reached 70 per cent, he said, adding that Egyptians represent about 18 per cent, up by 10 per cent from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics said that the number of all international tourists amounted to 820,000 during the month of June 2015, compared with 785,700 in June 2014, an increase of 4.4 per cent.
Mohammed Ayoub, the president of the Chamber Hotels of the Egyptian Federation of Chambers of Tourism, said that Eastern Europe recorded the most number of tourists to Egypt during June 2015 with an increase of 44.7 per cent, and Russia topped the list with 67.9 per cent of the total number of tourists coming from Eastern Europe. This was followed by Western Europe at 31.1 per cent, with Germany at 30.7 per cent of the total tourist arrivals from Western Europe. Middle Eastern tourism rose by 13.4 per cent, with Libya representing 27.1 per cent of the total tourist arrivals from the Middle East. The number of tourists coming from Africa, Asia and America represented 10.8 per cent.
The number of tourists from Arab countries reached 135,600 tourists during June 2015, compared with 149,900 tourists during the same month in 2014, with a drop of 9.5 per cent and a rate of 16.5 per cent of the total number of tourists.
