Arab world battles to regain tourism market share after revolutions

By Eva Tasche Feb 7, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Berlin - Many Europeans felt considerable sympathy and solidarity with the events of last year's Arab Spring, but the region is a long way from returning to normality and tourists are tending to steer clear.

Whether at the fabulous diving resorts along the Red Sea coastline, the tombs of the pharaohs along the Nile, the wonders of the ancient world or the sun-drenched beaches of Tunisia, there are plenty of unfilled tourist spots.

Many holidaymakers are put off by continuing reports of unrest, although the situation in the vacationing areas is peaceful and visitors have no need to fear being restricted in moving around.

Companies offering study trips or round trips taking in several destinations are finding nervousness among potential customers, with at least one major German company reporting 2011 figures down by more than half for Egypt compared with the previous year.

Hosni Mubarak resigned as Egyptian president on February 11 a year ago, and several airlines have cancelled flights to Cairo in the weeks ahead as the anniversary approaches for lack of demand. Security concerns have cut demand drastically. The recent violence at a football match in Port Said which killed more than 70 people is also likely to add to tourist fears.

Many European holidaymakers are also nervous at the at the recent election victory of the Islamist parties in Egypt and Tunisia, says German travel expert Karl Born. 'It doesn't have to stay this way,' Born says, but he is not expecting the numbers to rise to their old levels.

The number of people visiting Egypt declined by more than a third last year according to figures from the country's Tourism Ministry. Whereas Egypt had almost 15 million foreign visitors in 2010, last year the number declined to around 9 million.

'Tourism, with a share in gross domestic product of 11.6 per cent and a share of 12 per cent of the labour market, is one of the pillars of the Egyptian economy,' Mohamed Gamal, a senior Egyptian consular official in Germany, says. 'We are extremely optimistic that during 2012 we will regain the pre-revolutionary levels.'

Tunisian tourism is recovering even slower. European market leader in the tourism sector, TUI, says from its Hanover headquarters that it foresees slack demand this year and has adjusted its packages accordingly. 'At the moment we are not where we were before the revolution but are flexibly adapting capacity to demand,' a TUI spokeswoman said.

The United Nation's tourism body, UNWTO, puts the decline in tourism to North Africa last year at 12 per cent, although this figure does not include all the countries in the region. But the numbers do indicate that North Africa and the Middle East were the only regions to record a fall in tourism.

The number of tourists worldwide rose 4.4 per cent to a new record of 980 million, and a further increase of between 3 and 4 per cent is expected this year.

UNWTO believes Arab countries will be able to compensate to some extent for the losses, but said it is difficult to make accurate predictions because of political uncertainty in those countries.