JEDDAH, Feb 3(Arab News): Saudi travel agencies say they have suffered significant losses after a large number of tourists canceled trips to Egypt due to the civil unrest there.
“We have had to cancel our current offers to Cairo and Alexandria because of the trouble,” said Mustapha Mohammed, director of Al-Ahram Travel and Tourism in Jeddah. “Because we had already paid deposits for hotels and airline tickets for Saudi travelers who bought packages with us, we have so far lost SR150,000 due to these canceled reservations.”
He added that the company tried to get a refund on their deposit, but the hotels in Egypt refused. “To make up for some of our losses, we tried to arrange a package to Dubai but were unsuccessful,” he said.
The anti-government protests in Egypt have also caused losses to Ace Travel, according to its managing director Mohammed Jarar. “Because of the situation, no one wants to travel to Egypt and instead of flying tourists into the country during holiday we are working to evacuate them back to the Kingdom,” he said.
“So far we have lost close to SR230,000 due to cancellations but have been trying to offset these losses by rebooking packages to other nearby destinations such as Dubai, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey,” Jarar said, adding that this has helped the company recover a third of the losses but has not fully solved the problem.
In 2010, Egypt welcomed 15 million tourists from around the globe, contributing to the bulk of the country’s revenue. In just the first quarter of last year, Egyptian tourism sector brought in revenue of $5.58 billion.
Egyptian tourism is responsible for 11 percent of the country’s GDP, with one in eight Egyptians working in the industry.
According to the Egyptian Tourism Ministry, as many as 600,000 Saudis purchased apartments in Egypt last year, with 60 percent of them in Cairo, 25 percent in Alexandria and the remaining 15 percent in resort cities located along the northern coast.
Some of these Saudis who have seen images of looting and destruction across Cairo have become concerned about their properties in Egypt. “Each time I watch the news, I try to identify the neighborhoods where the protesting is really bad so I can make sure that our flat is safe,” Hana Zohair, a Saudi mother of four, told Arab News.
She added that she had been waiting for her two sons to finish their mid-term exams so they could spend their two-week vacation in Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh, but had to cancel the plan due to the protests.
“Now we are just following what is happening in Egypt like everyone else and hoping things get better,” she said.