CAIRO: A group of Malaysian tour operators are on a fact-finding mission in this Egyptian capital to see for themselves the situation in the country following the people’s revolution in January that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
They are part of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) delegation which also includes Matta president Datuk Khalid Harun.
Khalid admitted that there was a drop in the number of bookings to Egypt, the home to ancient monuments dated back thousands of years, following the crisis.
He told Malaysian journalists here on Friday that he was, however, pleased to note that during the visit here, things were running smoothly.
“We see no problem,” he said, “Travel is smooth, accommodation is comfortable and it’s easy to reach places of attraction.” He added that during the Matta Fair in Kuala Lumpur in March, the number of bookings for the Egypt sector was “very low.”
“We’ve anticipated this in view of the revolution. Malaysians were worried at that time about the uncertainty in Egypt,” he said.
The visit, he added, would give a true picture of the situation in Egypt especially among Malaysians who wanted to visit the country.
The visit is on the invitation of the Egyptian tourism authorities.
Egyptian Ambassador to Malaysia, Mohamed Saad Ebeid, told Bernama in Kuala Lumpur recently that the situation in Egypt was returning to normal and that the tourism industry, which suffered during the anti-Mubarak protests, was set to recover.
He noted that the post-revolution, with its new ruling power currently held by the Egypt Military Council, had created a “new image” of Egypt for tourists and that they were curious to know about life in the country.
Egypt’s tourism industry incurred a small-term loss during the revolution as people changed plans for touring Egypt due to safety concerns, he said.
Meanwhile, the Swiss Inn Pyramids Golf Resort in Cairo suffered losses due to the revolution but its general manager Louisa Morena was confident that the Egyptian tourism industry would recover quickly.
“From February to mid-March, it was zero tourist for our hotel. Whatever bookings that we received in January from Denmark, France, Norway and north European countries were cancelled immediately after the revolution.
“We have to resort to other means by focusing on local tourists. We offer good rates for weekend’s stay which fell on Friday and Saturday,” she said.
Morena said business was picking up for the five-star hotel and it started to receive bookings from foreign and local tourists since middle of March.
“We feel that this is due to the situation in Egypt now … it is safe and tourists can travel comfortably too,” she said.
Located at the prestigious 6th of October City in Cairo, the resort is currently receiving tourists from Italy, France, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
Morena expects the number of tourists bookings to increase after the September parliamentary election, saying the big season would begin during winter from October to January.
Star Gold Travel Chairman Mohamed El Banna also said that things were getting better for the Egyptian tourism industry.
“Foreigners have realised that there’s nothing to worry about when they travel to Egypt. When the revolution erupted, our company suffered losses because 35 group bookings consisting of 1,800 tourists from China, India, Malaysia and Singapore were cancelled,” he added. — Bernama