Bollywood performance at Cairo airport enthralls Egyptians

Bollywood performance at Cairo airport enthralls Egyptians

Amitabh Bachchan 

In the run up to the 'India by the Nile' festival set to begin here tomorrow, artistes from India and Egypt today presented a pulsating Bollywood performance at the airport for guests and local people.

The 18-day festival, considered as the biggest foreign fair in Egypt, will have Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan as the guest of honour for its third edition.

Delhi-based dance group kick started the performance with Bachchan's hit song "Ye Dosti" from the movie "Sholay" and went on to perform on the hit "Dil Chahta Hai" track "Koi Kahe".

Young college girls chanted "Indiawale" as the performers danced to the beats of the dhol.

Their heart pumping act was followed by a dance number by Cairo-based dance group comprising of five young girls, who are all self-confessed Bollywood fans.

Their passion for Bollywood was evident from their performance on latest hits "Lovely" from "Happy New Year" and other item songs.

"We love everything Bollywood. We love the songs the dance the energy. We have been dancing on Bollywood songs for quite some time now," said Elham, who was one of the dancers.

Indian Ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri welcomed all guests and delegates at the airport.

"As the annual edition of our cultural festival India by the Nile?returns for its 3rd edition, we connect with that most potent of symbols, hoping to make?permanent a long and fruitful relationship," Suri said.

"What better way to make such an audacious attempt than bring an Indian legend that?has long captivated the Egyptian imagination. We have with us none other than the?Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan who will inaugurate the festival," he said.

Bachchan will speak about his films, particularly "Amar Akbar Anthony" at the Opera House on March 31 and will also be present at a gala event at the Pyramids the same day.

The gala inauguration will be followed by a new musical 'Bollywood extravaganza: A Tale of Passion, Love and Revenge', which will run at the Opera House from April 1-3 and will see more than 35 Indian dancers performing to the much-loved music of Indian cinema.

The musical will also travel to Egypt's second largest city Alexandria, in north central part of the country.

As part of the festival, a Bollywood dance workshop will also be organised on March 30 at Medan Theatre in the Cairo Opera House complex.

The third edition of the festival is organised by the Embassy of India in Cairo in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism and the Cairo Opera House.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Bollywood-performance-at-Cairo-airport-enthralls-Egyptians/articleshow/46741743.cms

Egyptian hospitality on the road to recovery

Egyptian hospitality on the road to recovery

Cairo’s hotels are growing again after the uprisings that sent the Egyptian tourism industry into a nosedive.

“The dark days of the Egyptian tourism industry look to be finally over after four years in the wilderness,” said Philip Wooller, the Middle East and Africa director at the hospitality research company STR Global.

“If the political stability continues, 2015 should be a good year for Egypt,” he said.

Overall tourist numbers increased 16 per cent last year, according to data from the ministry of tourism, which pushed up room yields in Cairo by about 57 per cent compared with the previous year, according to data from the consultancy Ernst & Young.

Room yield, a measure of the financial health of the hotel sector, is the product of total occupancy and average room rate, and provides an indication of the revenue that a typical room produces over a given time period.

Yields in Cairo, which is home to 19 million of Egypt’s 90 million people, rose from US$21 per typical room per night in 2013 to $33 per typical room per night last year.

This is a different figure to the average daily room rate – the actual price charged for a room – because it takes into account unoccupied rooms.

The yield is predicted to increase significantly to $65 per typical room per night this year, according to the real estate consultancy Colliers International.

That will be the result of a 6 per cent increase in occupancy this year, and a rise in the average price of a room to $127 per night.

Average daily rates increased significantly from $81 per night in 2013 to $93 per night last year after government efforts to raise the price of hotel rooms.

“Hotels have been affected dramatically by the political situation over the past three years,” said Ayman Sami, the head of the Cairo office at the property consultancy JLL. “It has been really difficult to keep a hotel business running because of low occupancy rates and low room rates.”

The handover of the new Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo has been repeatedly delayed, in part because of the length of time it has taken for the sector to recover, Mr Sami said.

Outside Cairo, yields are set to increase more slowly.

Room yields in Sharm El Sheikh are predicted to increase 6 per cent this year, while Alexandrian hotel yields will rise 3 per cent. Occupancy is predicted to fall in both cases over the next year, with average room rate increases making up the difference in room yields.

Significant oversupply continues to characterise the Egyptian hotel market, with occupancy rates falling as low as 17 per cent in Luxor.

About 1,000 new rooms are expected to be added to Egypt’s hospitality sector over the next four years, according to JLL. Dubai will add 27,000 rooms over the same period, by comparison.

“We need to wait a while before we see new supply,” Mr Sami said. “There is still more to do to fill up hotels before investors begin to look at increasing supply.”

“With new growth and new jobs … it will eventually happen. But first, hoteliers need to increase the performance of current hotels,” he said.

http://www.thenational.ae/business/travel-tourism/egyptian-hospitality-on-the-road-to-recovery 

Bulgaria, Egypt to Co-organize Tourism Conference in Cairo:

Bulgaria, Egypt to Co-organize Tourism Conference in Cairo:

Conference in Cairo

Tourism ministry officials from Egypt and Bulgaria and both countries' ambassadors are due to hold a conference on promoting bilateral tourism cooperation from Wednesday to Friday in Egypt's capital Cairo.

The event will include Ani Haralambieva, chief expert for marketing and advertising at Bulgaria's Tourism Ministry, who will meet Egyptian Tourism Minister Khaled Rami during her stay in Cairo, Mr Haddad El-Gohary, Chargé d'Affaires of the Egyptian Embassy in Sofia has said in a statement.

Meetings of Haralambieva are also scheduled with tourist agency officials to promote charter flights between the two countries.

The conference, titled “Egypt and Bulgaria without Borders,” will also be attended by H.E. Ms. Manal El Shinnawi, Ambassador of Egypt in Sofia, and H.E. Mr. Rumen Petrov, Ambassador of Bulgaria in Cairo.

In Mr El-Gohary's words, “This event comes at the right time to explore more potential for the tourism industry in both countries, especially with many Egyptian tourist agencies and resorts preparing for the launch of flights between Bulgaria and Hurghada, as well as Sharm El-Sheikh has always been the largest economic partner for Bulgaria in the Middle East and Africa.”

In 2014, bilateral trade balance between Egypt and Bulgaria amounted to USD 367 M.

Last month Cairo received a big delegation from the Chamber of Commerce in Haskovo where they participated in a seminar with Egyptian businessmen in fields of solar energy, construction, tourism, transportation.

Some Bulgarian companies recently took part in the Sharm El-Sheikh economic conference, which held between March 13 and March 15  to explore the opportunities for investment and mutual trade between Egypt and Bulgaria.

http://www.novinite.com/articles/167458/Bulgaria,+Egypt+to+Co-organize+Tourism+Conference+in+Cairo