Red Sea Governorate’s occupancy rates increase to 65%

CAIRO - 2 December 2017: Occupancy rates have increased to 65 percent in the Red Sea Governorate in Egypt as the winter season kicks in, announced Bashar Abou Taleb, Head of the Tourist Guides in the Red Sea, on Saturday.

The occupancy rate is expected to reach 90 percent during the New Year holidays, said Abou Taleb, pointing out that there may be more than 35 nationalities flooding in; most visitors are expected to be from Germany and the United Kingdom.

Abou Taleb affirmed that the occupancy rates this winter season is better than previous years, noting that Marsa Alam beat Hurghada in the hotel occupancy rates this year for the first time in the history of the governorate.

On the other hand, Hurghada International Airport has received about 60 flights carrying around 10,000 tourists of different nationalities during the last 24 hours.

Compared to the same period last year, Reservations for Christmas holidays in the hotels of the Red Sea, Luxor and Aswan are very high, Magdi Nagib of the Chamber of Tourist Facilities said recently.

Tourism is one of Egypt’s main foreign currency earners, which has suffered several blows since the 25 January Revolution of 2011. Recently, tourism has been picking up, especially now that Egypt has become a cheaper destination for many tourists from the world due to local currency flotation.

Tourism revenues jumped 211.8 percent year-on-year to $5.3 billion in the first nine months of 2017, compared to $1.7 billion the year before.

The number of tourists who visited Egypt in that time jumped 55.3 per cent to 5.9 million, with European visitors reaching 3.2 million, an 85 per cent increase from the previous year.