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Egypt Tourism Sets Up India Office
Targets 90,000 Tourists In Two Years
Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai
India in the last few months has witnessed a sudden surge
of international tourism boards. Various reasons could be cited for this growth
but the fact of the matter stands that Indians are being nonetheless recognised
as big global spenders. To take advantage of this growing market, the Egyptian
Consulate has decided to make its presence felt in the Indian subcontinent by
opening up a tourism office in Mumbai. Discloses Samy Mahmoud, tourism counsellor,
Egyptian Consulate Tourism Office, "Though we acquired our office in April,
we would officially begin operations from June as a lot of work needs to be
done. The decision to set up an India office was taken three months ago when
our minister visited India. It was then decided to shut the South Korea office
and instead begin operations out here."
Elaborating on the reasons for setting up an office, Mahmoud said, "One
cannot dispute the fact that India is one of the biggest markets and is considered
of great potential in the next 10 years or so. As of 2004, the tourist numbers
from India was 45,000,which we plan to double by 2005-06. This could be attained
as we plan to participate in various travel and tourism fairs across the country
and promote Egypt as a destination of varied options. It is mostly seen that
Indians are only aware of the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx but there is much
more to Egypt. There is culture, shopping, entertainment, resorts and most of
all, the exotic Nile Cruise. There are also good Golf courses."
 With
a well-laid out marketing strategy, Mahmoud feels that Egypt's tourist target
would be the up-market and not mass tourists. Initially, we plan to promote
Cairo, Aswan and Luxor and an exotic aspect of Golf alongside the Great Sphinx.
We would highlight the various resorts and the rich sea that we have to offer.
Accommodation is not a hassle for us as we already have 200,000 rooms available
and are adding 40,000 rooms every year, which accounts for US$ 1 billion every
year to this effort. Of the total 8 million tourists that Egypt receives every
year, 60 per cent is from the European market, while 20 per cent from the Middle
East, 4 per cent from the US ad Canada while the Far East and Asia accounts
for 10 per cent arrivals.
On a concluding note, Mahmoud said, "There are a whole host of promotions
that we plan to conduct in the Indian market. Initially, we would work closely
with the national carrier to promote joint packages through the travel industry.
Workshops, Egyptian nights, food festivals are some of the promotions lined
up. And finally, our initial target would be Mumbai, Delhi and Goa but would
also look at another big southern city later in the year."
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