Face-to-face: Jason Hilton, deputy managing director, Red Sea Holidays
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
What signs are there that UK business to Egypt is returning and what factors are driving that pick up?
In short, UK visitor figures are climbing; overall the market is up over 10% year-on-year (YoY) and since starting up in 2009 we’ve grown our numbers every year and are now the biggest specialist operator into Egypt from the UK.
Specifically; the market is seeing more airlift – we’ve just introduced the Marsa Alam from Gatwick route to our brochure whilst some routes have been resumed – the charter and scheduled flights into Luxor, for example; the FCO has never advised against travel to the Red Sea resorts and relaxed the travel advisory into Luxor and Cairo some months ago; Egypt is a great holiday destination, guaranteed sunshine, clean, clear waters in the Red Sea for swimming, snorkelling and world class diving, ancient history and archaeology, a wide range of accommodation and holiday types for couples, families or the empty nesters and its exceptional value for money, particularly now.
What growth in business to Egypt have you witnessed year on year and what are the prospects for the rest of 2015? What are the strong source markets and why?
This year we’re up YoY and forward sales look even better; cruise and stay holidays are proving very popular – 7-day Nile cruise with 7 days at a Red Sea resort – and key school holiday dates particularly are booking fast.
The UK is a major source market for Egypt and the Brits are well liked; the more people go to Egypt and realise its potential the more they’ll come home and spread the word.
We’re owned by Red Sea Hotels, an Egyptian-owned family business with around US$1bn of hotels and ground transportation in major tourist spots across the country and they are also seeing numbers increase substantially from Western Europe.
What sales and marketing initiatives have you put in place (trade and consumer) to help stimulate business to Egypt?
We work very closely with the Egyptian Tourist Office in London to jointly promote the country and have always invested strongly in agent fams, we’ve taken over 800 agents out to Egypt in the six years and we’ll host another 80+ in 2015.
We aired a TV campaign last year and this, have a strong and active PR programme and undertake continuous product quality and development. Investment in-country is also being made with extensive hotel refurbishment and renovations and new resort development such as at Sahl Hasheesh near Hurghada and at Port Ghalib, just north of Marsa Alam.
What advice can you give to travel agents whose customers are unsure about whether or not it is safe to travel to Egypt?
The FCO has never advised against travel to the Red Sea resorts and lifted the advisories against Cairo and Luxor some months ago. The new government has given political stability, the Egyptians are doing everything they can to re-establish their tourism [industry] and our UK staff travel to Egypt frequently; we know the country and work very closely with the FCO, ABTA and our ground staff in country. And security in the country is tight and visible – which is good and gives that added peace of mind.
What are your top five selling tips to help agents generate more Egypt business right now?
Egypt has plenty to offer: year-round, guaranteed sunshine; magnificent history, culture, archaeology and excursions – Bedouin desert camps or Cairo and the Pyramids, for example; exceptional value for money; a high standard of hotels / accommodation; friendly and attentive service – the Egyptians value our business and work hard to give all guests a great welcome and excellent holiday.
What are the general prospects for Egypt in light of returned stability to the country and the recent financial stimuli announced at the Economic Development Conference in Sharm?
We believe 2015 will be a good year for tourism in Egypt on the back of political stability and the development of existing and new hotels and resorts.
It’s a world-class destination with legendary history and archaeology, the sands of the desert, the green and fertile Nile valley, world-class diving and snorkelling in the Red Sea, sandy beaches and well-developed tourism infrastructure. And there is substantial investment that thinks the same – Red Sea Hotels has a mega-resort in build at Sahl Hasheesh, in Port Ghalib outside Marsa Alam we have just bought two hotels, one of which was an Intercontinental plus a 600+ room hotel just north of Port Ghalib, again just started building.
Comments are closed.