Egypt Tourism: Festive season tops off successful year for sector

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02:33

A heart-warming example of cultural fusion. The holiday season is a boost to many countries' tourism industry. Yasser Hakim looks at how Egypt's tourism sector has braced for the festivities, and how the industry has performed in 2018, as tourism becomes one of the major sources of hard currency for the north African country.

Egyptian hotels and resorts are looking forward for the festive season. The sunny, warm weather in the Red Sea cities of Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh makes it an attractive destination during the Christmas and new year.

TAREK SARHAN TOUR OPERATOR "The season looks very promising. The hotels and resorts are fully booked. It's near impossible to find a room even for us Egyptians to enjoy the holiday. The improvements in security and the successful crackdown on terrorism has helped bring back tourists from the US, Japan, Spain, Germany and UK in big numbers."

The first three quarters of 2018 have recorded a 55% increase against the same period in 2017. However, the eight million who visited the country are still much lower than the 15 million the new minister of tourism is targeting.

TAREK SARHAN TOUR OPERATOR "Rania El Mashat has been very active. She restructured the whole ministry to be more effective, hired qualified personnel and set up a comprehensive marketing and sales plan to attract more visitors in the short and medium term."

The all important charter flights from Russia have not resumed yet since the 2015 passenger plane crash in Sharm El Sheikh. Depriving Egypt from over 2 million Russian visitors a year.

But tourists from China have been steadily increasing to reach 500 thousand in 2018 up from about 300 thousand the year before.

CHINESE TOURIST "Egypt is a beautiful country with a great civilization like China so I had to come and see it myself."

In 2019, The government plans to inaugurate the New Grand Museum, one of the largest in the world, as well as refurbishing the pyramids area.

YASSER HAKIM CAIRO, EGYPT "Unlike the past five years, 2018 has been a good year for tourism in Egypt and analysts expect 2019 to be even better. Yasser Hakim, CGTN, Cairo."