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Ahram Online
Average occupancy rates in Egypt’s Red Sea hotels recorded 75% in 2019; a tourism ministry official said on Monday, as the country moves to boost the sector vital for foreign currency revenues.
Abdel-Fattah El-Assi, head of the tourism ministry’s sector responsible for monitoring hotels and resorts, told Reuters that the occupancy rose from a reported 65 percent last year 2018.
He forecast increased occupancy in Red Sea hotels, anticipating somewhere between 65,000 and 85,000 room reservations in the tourist hub in December, during Christmas holidays.
Egypt aims to increase the tourists figures to 12 million in fiscal year (FY) 2019/2020; an 11 percent rise on the last year.
It eyes increasing tourist nights to 127 million in the current fiscal year, up from 113 million nights last year.
Tourism revenues rose by 28.2% in FY 2018/2019, hitting $12.5 billion, up from $9.8 billion in FY 2017/2018.
Egypt continues to push through with efforts to revamp a now improving sector which had suffered major hits due to political instability in recent years, including a Russian plane crash over Sinai, which killed all on board in late 2015.
The crash has led to the suspension of flights by mainly Russia and the UK to the country’s popular tourist resort Sharm El-Sheikh. However, the UK lifted the ban last October.
Russia has only re-established flights to Cairo to-and-from Moscow in April 2018, ending a suspension which lasted over two and half years.
