Egypt Reports Hotels Occupancy Growth

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Jan. 5 (SEE) - A recent piece published by tourism specialized news portal, Egypt has witnessed a growth in tourist trips, registering a new score in hotel occupancy over the New Year's holiday.

Hotelmanagement.net quoted Ali El-Menestarely, head of Alexandria's Tourism Chamber, saying that hotel occupancy in Alexandria reached 98 percent. He explained that Alexandria currently has a total of 4,200 hotel rooms, and this number is poised to rise as new properties open throughout the year.

Earlier this year, Colliers International’s MENA Hotel Forecasts August 2018 report predicted hotels in Alexandria would see only a "limited" increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) at 4 percent. Alexandria’s market has experienced consistent growth in corporate and leisure demand in the past months, the report said, a trend Colliers expects to continue in upcoming months, resulting in a healthy growth in RevPAR.

The number of tourists visiting Egypt increased by 41 percent in first-half 2018 to 5.061 million tourists, according to Reuters, while tourism sector revenues increased 77 percent in the same period to $4.791 million. While 2018 will probably not reach 2010's levels, Egyptian Minister of Tourism Rania al Mashat said in a recent interview with Bloomberg, the rebound is “quite steep and we’re trying to put the industry on a competitive base compared to our peers.”

The United Nations World Tourism Organization’s 2018 release on global travel and tourism named Egypt as the fastest-growing tourist destination in terms of year-over-year percentage increase of visitors. The country received 8.5 million tourists in 2017, a 55.1-percent increase over the same period in 2016.