Analysis of Egypt in the Global Market

Share of the global market:

Due to a geographic location in Egypt and a tropical climate across the year, as well as its clean wide coastal areas and beaches with its peculiar coral leaf treasures, it offers Egypt with a competitive edge benefit. As evidenced by the different types of tourism and cultural tourism in Egypt, tourism is characterized by a non-repetitive, distinct and uncompetitive feature of Egypt and it has 1/3 of the world’s known and reputed attractions.

The following figure tells about the visit of international tourists in Egypt in 2006 which is around 1 million tourists which is 11% of the whole population (Vignal, 2019).

Figure 1. Origin of tourism according to the main geographical area in 2006 (Vignal, 2019).

In 2007, for having organized conferences and festivals at the heart of Egypt and having participated in the Gulf Incentive Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition, Egypt ranked second among the top 5 Middle East tourist sites. In addition, “Sharm el-sheikh” is one of the primary and biggest tourism diving centers for attracted national and global tourism. It also gets awarded from World Travel Awards for a best diving centre in the globe in 2007. In 2010, according to World Bank Data, in the tourism sector, Egypt earns about $14 billion. Between 1998 and 2010, its value fluctuated between $2.9 billion to $13.6 billion (Gharib, n.d.)

Figure 2. The number of tourists continues to increase in the year between 1990-2008. (millions per year)(Vignal, 2019).

According to a statistical study, tourism accounted for about 11.3% of Egypt’s reasonable and significant GDP in 2013, as well as 40% of total Egyptian non-commodity exports, accounting for 19.3% of foreign exchange earnings. Egypt generated about 1.2 million jobs in the period of 2013 and 2014. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, or (Unwto), Egypt occupies the tenth place at the regional level in 2013, dropping 10 places in the overall global assessment to 85 overall, probably the result of the country’s continuing disturbances (Gharib, n.d.)

About 8.3 million visitors toured Egypt in 2017. In the meantime, Egypt was toured by 2 million Arab tourists in 2016, covering nearly 40% of the country’s international visitors. According to a report, further, the proportion of Chinese tourists to Egypt rose by 94 percent in the first five months of 2017 (Al-Aees, 2018). The ATM (Arabian Travel Market) studies show that although the UK was once the main market for the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheik, it really only reported a 4 percent increase in arrivals between 2017 and 2018 due to a flight ban from the UK (Maged, 2019).

In 2018, the size of the Egyptian travel economy was US $29.6 billion which is the healthiest one. In total, world visitors from Egypt in the past year spent more than EGP 218.1 billion, representing more than 27.3 percent of the country’s total exports. In 2018, Travel & Tourism supported 11.9 percent of the country’s GDP in combination with national expenditure. Among all these, Germany (13%); Russia (12%); United Kingdom (7%); Saudi Arabia (6%); and Italy (3%) were the highest global entry markets. The contribution to GDP is expected to continue to develop and it increased by 5.4% in 2019 (WTTC, 2019).

Market Position:

In the next some years, there can be a great specification and initiative in tourism in Egypt.

In the next 2 years:

• Due to the arrival of more visitors in Egypt, the Egyptian government has focused its attention on improving the ability of airports, especially in the Cairo-Giza region. Two new airports will open in the next two years.
• This also includes the opening of 2 key main museums. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo together with the new $1.1 billion Great Egyptian Museum inferable from its opening close to the Giza pyramids (Spotlight: Egypt Hotel Market, 2019).
• According to a recent report by Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the number of tourists in Egypt is anticipated to improve by 50% from 1.49 million in 2018 to 2.23 million in 2022 over the next years (Maged, 2019).
• It is expected that the tourism capital investment number will increase by 25 % in the next two or three years (Maged, 2019).
• Give inbound visas to numerous nations in the source market and support new or improved transportation routes.

In the next 5 years:

• It is forecasted that in the next 5 years, the GDP of Egypt due to tourism will be growing by 5.35% per annum (Spotlight: Egypt Hotel Market, 2019).

• Their initiative is to enhance the safety and security in Egypt and to have a hygienic atmosphere.
• Improving sustainability by implementing a Green Star hotel tourism unit program to oversee eco-friendly hotel management and socially responsible environmental awareness; pursue energy efficiency; encourage the use of solar and renewable energy sources; Reduce water consumption, and preserve biodiversity and reduce solid/liquid waste and carbon emissions.

In the next 10 years:

• Egypt has the capacity to attract about 60 million visitors in the next 10 years (Al-Aees, 2018).
• In addition, Egypt will do more to connect tourism destinations, links between cultural tourism and coastal tourism.

References:

• Gharib, H (n.d.). EGYPT “BRAND” AND TOURISM GLOBAL MARKET. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/15138726/EGYPT_BRAND_AND_TOURISM_GLOBAL_MARKET
• Travel and Tourism in Egypt shows immense strength and recovery in 2018 says new research by WTTC. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wttc.org/about/media-centre/press-releases/press-releases/2019/travel-and-tourism-in-egypt-shows-immense-strength-and-recovery-in-2018-says-new-research-by-wttc/
• Maged, M. (2019, April 03). Tourism flow to Egypt to increase 50% by 2022: ATM. Retrieved from https://ww.egyptindependent.com/tourism-flow-to-egypt-to-increase-50-by-2022-atm/
• Al-Aees, S. (2018, April 25). Egypt has potential to attract 60m tourists in next 10 years: OBG. Retrieved from https://dailynewsegypt.com/2018/04/25/egypt-potential-attract-60m-tourists-next-10-years-obg/
• Vignal, L. (2010, October 29). The new territories of tourism in Egypt: A local-global frontier? Retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/23324?lang=en
• Oecd. (2016, March 09). Egypt. Retrieved from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/industry-and-services/oecd-tourism-trends-and-policies-2016/egypt_tour-2016-47-en
• Spotlight: Egypt Hotel Market. (2019, April 09). Retrieved from https://www.savills.com/research_articles/255800/280736-0