Egypt's tourism authority promotes domestic tourism

[DJKeefy]

Egypt’s tourism authority has launched an initiative in collaboration with the private sector to promote domestic tourism.

For two months, the “My Country is Beautiful” initiative will create a platform for tourism agencies to make information on Egypt's touristic destinations available to locals.

Accordingly, low rate packages and promotional offers will be available to tourists taking part in the initiative, which will last unitl 26 April.

In September 2013, Egypt’s ministries of tourism and civil aviation launched an initiative to encourage domestic tourism in an attempt to boost hotel occupancy rates

On Wednesday, Germany advised its citizens against traveling to Egypt's Sinai and recommended that those already in its beach resorts arrange to return home.

Germany's warning follows the bombing of a bus carrying Korean tourists in the Red Sea town of Taba in mid-February. The assault was the first on tourists since president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July 2013 spurred an Islamist insurgency.

The ailing tourism sector in Egypt, from which millions draw sustenance, took a blow following the 2011 popular uprising which ousted president Hosni Mobarak.

Earlier hopes for recovery have faded as tourism sector revenues dropped 40 percent in 2013 recording $6 billion compared with the year before.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/95498.aspx

[newcastle]

Makes a lot of sense....athough the revenue per capita will be a lot lower I'd imagine. The presence of local tourists in Hurghada & Luxor is already very apparent. But there might be a temptation to cut back on "standards" making the country even less attractive to the foreign market.