Egyptian Tourism Industry Competitors

According to the Travel Trade Gazette, Tunisia, Syria, and Abu Dhabi will be increasingly strong tourism competitors for Turkey and Egypt.

"ABTA (The Travel Assassination) also predicted that if the pound rallied against the euro as expected next year, short-haul destinations would see 'renewed enthusiast' as they became better value for money, which would be the key trend next year, according to the report.(Hurryiet Daily News, 2010).

The Egyptian tourism industry has tough competition with many countries in the region. The competition is dif ferent in many aspects. First, is the nationality of the tourists and second, is the type of tourism. 

Western countries and East Asian countries are their competitors. Egypt has competition with Israel, Turkey, Syria and other countries in the region..These nationalities prefer to visit Egypt in winter but they are likely to go to Turkey and Israel in the summer time more than Egypt.While Egypt has beat Turkey and Israel in winter, both of them beat Egypt in the summer On the other hand, the Arab tourist’s competition turned out to be between Egypt, Syria  and UAE.

Historical tourism is known to be Egypt's number one attraction for tourists.  Religious tourism has Israel as the head contender in this area. Entertainment tourism has Israel as number one, Turkey as second, and Egypt the third. 

Where Egypt's Tourists Come From?

Taken in South Egypt

“Egypt reported an increase in the number of tourists from the UAE even as overall visitor figures fell.The numberofvisitors is from the UAE increased by 35 per cent during the first five months of the year to 10,250.Overalltourist arrivals fell 26.2 per cent during the same period, according to the country’s tourism ministry.

Saudi Arabia accounted for 98,250 visitors, up by 6.3 per cent, while the number of visitors from Kuwait went up by 10.8 per cent to 41,362.(The National, 2014)

Most tourists who visit Egypt come from Europe. Most European tourists are visiting Egypt in winter when Egypt has beautiful weather. Winter is usually sunny; the temperature never goes below 5 degrees at night and almost up 20 degrees in the day time. Europeans tourists are attracted to historical tourism and entertainment tourism, especially Germans and Russians, they are known to visit the Red Sea year round.

The Arabs countries are also good resource for Egyptian tourism. Arabs tourists visit Egypt in the summer time for both entertainment and historical trips. Libyan tourists like to visit Alexandria and the north west coast while the Gulf tourists are visiting Cairo and the east coast

It is rare to find tourists in the summer time as tourism in the north is more popular in this time, but it is opposite in winter time.

The Effect of Egyptian Revolution on Tourism

“In 2010, the last year before Egypt’s revolution, a record 14 million tourists arrived. The industry was 13% of GDP and directly or indirectly employed one in seven workers. Arrivals plummeted to 9.5m in 2011, and have yet to recover (see chart). Tourism Economics, a consultancy, predicts that 11.4m tourists will come in 2013. The Egyptian Tourism Federation estimates that hotel occupancy rates are barely 15% in Cairo and below 5% in Luxor, the site of the Valley of the Kings.” (The Economist, 2013)

After the revolution Egypt was turned upside down. The country lost all control in the streets. The police were not able to protect themselves or any other citizen. A few months after the revolution, the Muslim brotherhood in Islamic groups took control of the country. Absence of the security was awful. Most countries warned their own citizens against travelling to Egypt.

90% of the workers who were in the tourism career, lost their jobs. Many investors also pulled their money out because of this.

The Muslim brotherhood declared new rules to ban alcohol in the country. That was a very clear message that Egypt is not a civilian country anymore.

After the recent revolution on June 30, 2013, the tourism sector has gained strength, but still struggling and may struggle for a few more years.

Tourism Industry in Egypt

Taken in Luxor City

"No one can deny that tourism is one of the most important things in Egypt, because it has great role in its economy. The importance of tourism lies in providing hard currency for Egypt. It also provides job opportunities for all people. From here the government should pay great attention to this field. We must do our best to attract more tourists to Egypt. It can build new hotels with all means of facilities. We as citizens have a role; we must treat tourists in a friendly way and make them love Egypt to come again" (Answers.com, 2014)

Tourism is a very important sector in Egypt, around 13% of the Egyptian Economy comes from tourism.

Egypt has all types  of tourism such as, 

• historical which is the most popular,
• religion which is the 2nd,
• entertainment which is the 3rd,

In the last ten years medical tourism has become part of the Egyptian tourism sector, besides education and sports.

Egypt has many types of tourism, however, historical is still the most important part. Most tourists are going to Egypt to see the pyramids which are closer to the north of the country, and to visit Luxor and Aswan which are in the south.    

The entertainment tourism in Egypt increased in the last 10 years, especially in the summer time. This is was after the government invested billions of dollar in the northwest coast and the Red Sea in the east of the country. However we can say that tourism in Egypt is important like the water and air.

The Business of Tourism

(Tourists in the street of Egypt)

UNWTO Secretary General, Taleb Rifai explains that "tourism is thus one of the pillars that should be supported by governments around the world as part of the solution to stimulating economic growth” (Risi, 2013).

• There are more than 1 billion people working in the tourism career worldwide.
• International tourism generated 1.3 trillion US dollars in 2012!
• International tourist arrivals grew by 5% in 2013 to 1.087 billion.
• Europe attracts the most tourists in the world.

There are many kind of tourist such as:

• Attractions.
• Historical.
• Entertainment.
• International Business.
• Medical Tourism.
• And many others.

With the next posts I will be covering the tourism in Egypt and how tourism affect Egypt economic. 


Risi, Marcelo (January 28, 2013). International tourism to continue robust growth in 2013. Retrieved from http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2013-01-28/international-tourism-continue-robust-growth-2013