Nadejda Popova from Euromonitor International said last year had been a good year for Egypt, with inbound tourism numbers rising by 8% to reach 10.2 million arrivals – up from 9.5 million in 2013.
 
“Egypt began to invest in a widespread campaign to lure back Egyptian expatriates and nationals living abroad, as well as boosting domestic tourism, mainly using social media.

“This was a smart strategy. It also introduced interesting packages and offers to GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council countries] and Mena residents, and was doing well with re-boosting tourism to its seaside resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh, which until now was a very resilient in terms of tourism. Moreover tourists continued to go there (ie. Sharm el Sheikh) as they dissociated this part of Egypt from the unrest elsewhere.”

Popova added that “the decision of the UK is going to have a very serious impact on the local economy and of course on tourism as the only pockets of safety in the country in terms of tourism are now compromised.

“Travellers will remain very hesitant to travel to this part of the Middle East and will continue to choose destinations like Dubai, Oman, and maybe even Morocco as opposed to more vulnerable destinations like Tunisia and Egypt.”

The UK is the second biggest source market for Egypt with one million arrivals in the country in 2014, after Russia which recorded nearly three million arrivals.  

“This of course makes the decision of the UK even more detrimental for the Egyptian tourism industry and those employed and working in the travel segment there.

“Although Egypt is one of the countries in the region which quickly bounces back from different crises looking at some of the historic years, I do believe that the recent events will slow down the ambitions of the local government to achieve the target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2020.”