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| Egypts Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou |
Egypt’s tourism minister is in Dubai this week to launch a new campaign called “We miss you” aimed at wealthy visitors from the Persian Gulf region in an attempt to help revive its ailing travel industry. As part of the charm offensive, Egypt is offering discount packages to Arab tourists, will establish more direct flights to the Gulf region and is planning a social media blitz to give its travel sector a much-needed shot in the arm. Minister Hisham Zaazou talks to The Wall Street Journal about the economic impact of the country’s tourism downturn and the way it wants to tackle the problem of sexual harassment of women.
WSJ: Egypt’s tourism industry suffered one of its worst years in 2013. What was the financial impact on the country?
Mr. Zaazou: “If I compare the peak years we’ve been through, particularly 2010, with our performance for 2013, I think we have a problem. In 2010, we received 14.7 million tourists generating an income for the Egyptian economy of $12.5 billion and that is more than the Suez Canal gave Egypt. If you compare these figures with 2013, you find there is a big drop. In 2013, we received a mere 9.5 million (tourists), generating an income of $5.8 billion. Our tourism may be sick but it will not die. I cannot claim that the current level of tourism to Egypt is satisfactory for us. This is a sick man, not very healthy compared to what he was before and I believe we need to work in the coming period with the political situation getting better by the day to get more business. I’m confident the business will come back strongly. There is a demand for Egypt and a demand for Egyptian products.”
WSJ: You said other countries’ travel warnings inflict much damage on Egypt’s tourism sector. What are you doing about it?
Mr. Zaazou: “The travel warnings are not fair for specific reasons. First, the travel advisories or warnings should meet three basic criteria. It should be time-specific. It is not. It should be geographic specific. And in this case it is not. Third, you should consult the host country when attempting to make a negative travel advisory per agreements with the WTO (World Tourism Organization). Fine, if it is a security issue then send me a security expert or delegations from your end to come and check for yourself the situation on the ground. Listen, we’re transparent, you send a delegation, you send a team, let them make the analysis and if they find anything that needs to be improved we’re willing to do it. Once we arrive to a point where you feel it is adequate, then there’s no need to keep the negative travel warning.”
WSJ: Sexual harassment of women in Egypt is also hurting the country’s image. What measures are you taking to tackle this problem?
Mr. Zaazou: “A lot. Women harassment is an issue. I think it is part of what Egypt went through after the revolution and there was no tight control by the police in areas. Police was not in control for 100% after the revolution. Change happened in Egypt. There was no real enforcement of the law. People were messing up and part of that is the harassment issue. Today we’re moving in a different direction. Police is gaining presence in the streets and accordingly the law is prevailing more and more by the day. In the tourism sector, we have issued a ministerial decree to enforce using CCTV cameras in public areas and in the corridors of hotels and to ask tour leaders of the groups to report any harassment immediately for us to take action. We’re also requesting a legislative change because the Egyptian law doesn’t contain the word harassment. It contains other words pertaining to sexual assault. The law is going to be passed very soon, maybe before the end of May. To include that word will help to gain tighter control. Finally, training courses. Newcomers coming from less privileged areas in Egypt where people are poor and maybe uneducated work in hotels. They don’t understand the culture quite well. You need to have training courses to make them understand to handle visitor coming from a different culture.”
WSJ: What is your outlook for the future?
Mr. Zaazou: “I had a forecast at the beginning of the year that we’ll go back to the figure of $8 or $9 billion in revenues and between 11 and 11.5 million visitors and I think we can achieve that. By 2020, we expect 25 million visitors and $25 billion in revenues. There is a relative increase in the expenditure by the tourists that came. We used to be at $85 (average spending per day), we went down to $60 and at the moment it is $65. This trend will continue in the coming period which means the revenue will be better. The Europeans are spending a bit more because they’re taking very good package deals so they have enough money to spend on optional tours and souvenirs. The feeling is they got a very good deal with the hotel and airline and came to Egypt because it is inexpensive, so it’s ok to spend more money in the destination. We also noticed Russians also spend more money on alcohol consumption in the destination.”
@http://blogs.wsj.com/middleeast/2014/05/04/egypt-launches-we-miss-you-ad-campaign-to-lure-back-visitors/
