Cairo tourism improves, but marginally

Cairo hotels may have improved their occupancy rates during summer, but the tourism industry has a long way to go.

Hotels in Cairo showed an upwards trend in July, according to the London-based consultancy Hotstats.

The occupancy rate at Cairo hotels was 29.3 per cent for the month. That may appear extremely low by international standards, but it still represents an 8.7 percentage point increase year-on-year. While it was still the lowest among Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha, its average daily room rate rose marginally by 1 per cent to US$114.85, according to Hotstats. That was almost the same as that of Abu Dhabi.

The gross operating profit per available room in Cairo rose to $16.01 from $2.83 during the same period last year.

At least one airline, Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways, reported a rise in passenger numbers to the country during July. It flew 12 per cent more passengers to Cairo, 19 per cent more to the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al Sheikh and recorded a 71 per cent increase on the route to Sohag in Upper Egypt.

Germany and the United Kingdom have lifted travel warnings on Cairo and Sharm Al Sheikh, which is expected to boost tourism to both destinations.

Profits have declined in Egypt’s largest industry since the 2011 uprising as unrest kept tourists away. Tourism revenues fell 43 per cent in the first quarter to $1.3 billion, according to the Egyptian tourism ministry. For the whole of last year, revenue was $5.8bn from 9.5 million tourists, down from $12.5bn in 2010 from 14.5 million tourists.

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