Egypt's hotels reaches highest level in 2018 Q1

Egypt's hotel occupancy rate reached record levels in the first quarter of 2018, reaching its highest level since 2010, according to an STR report.

STR stated that occupancy grew 21.2 percent to 60.1 percent in Q1 while ADR reached LE 1,291.72. RevPAR also saw significant gains in the quarter, growing 35.5 percent to LE 775.69. STR attributed the increase to hotel markets Sharm El Sheikh and Cairo/Giza, which recorded an 84.9-percent and a 14.7-percent rise in RevPAR, respectively.

STR analysts predict recovery in Egypt's hotel industry will continue now that Russia has lifted a two-year suspension on flights to the country. Rania Al-Mashat, the Egyptian Minister of Tourism, recently stated that the number of tourist arrivals surged 30 percent in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same period last year. In February 2018 alone, Egypt welcomed at least 730,000 tourists with the total number for the month growing 35 percent, compared to the same month last year.
 
 A month later, NLTimes reported that Dutch tourists are returning to Egypt, developing the country into a key vacation hotspot. UK tour operator Thomas Cook also predicts British tourist numbers in Egypt will also grow in 2018. According to a Thomas Cook report, British bookings to Egypt jumped 89 percent this year so far, compared to the levels reached in 2017. The country had a strong start to the year with Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics recording that Britons had the sixth highest number of tourists to Egypt. At least 26,338 British tourists visited Egypt in January.

Meanwhile, Western European countries had a total of 220,719 tourists visit Egypt in January 2018 with the top number of tourists to the country, jumping 47.3 percent from the levels recorded in January 2017. Moudy Al-Shaer, an official at Thomas Cook's Egypt-based global tourism agency Blue Sky, told Al-Shorouk that Germany continues to have the highest number of tourists visiting Hurghada and Marsa Alam while British tourist numbers in Hurghada are on the rise.