CAIRO, Egypt (28 Aug 2005) -- A month ago, terror bombings blasted the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, killing at least 64 people, devastating a four-star hotel, and sending hundreds of tourists fleeing on the next plane home. But now visitors are returning to Sharm, and Egypt's tourist industry in general _ the country's No. 1 source of foreign currency _ has not collapsed as it did in 1997 when Islamic terrorists shot dead 58 people at a Pharaonic temple in the southern town of Luxor. "We went overnight from 100 percent (occupancy) to 50 percent," said Werner Gessner, the general manager of the Sonesta Beach Resort and Casino, which has now filled 87 percent of its 520 rooms. "We have really bounced back. It is remarkable that we're recouping so quickly." Tour operators in Italy, Britain and France said their nationals were now flying to Egypt at full strength or very nearly so. For the 10 days following the attacks, Sharm hotels averaged only 30 percent occupancy, said Tourism Ministry spokeswoman Hala el Khatib. Now they are running at 62 percent occupancy on average. In part, the favorable numbers are due to deals that Sharm hotels and other outlets quickly started offering after the attacks. But another reason is simply that, with terrorists attacking in so many places, tourists have become less fearful. "It's not like it was 10 years ago when 100 percent of people would have canceled," said Christian Rochette of the major operator Nouvelles FrontieresRochette in Paris. "Travelers now know that Paris or London are as dangerous as anywhere else." In Rome, Veronica Cappennani, a spokeswoman for the Viaggi del Ventaglio tour operator, agreed. "Italians are not deterred because there have been so many attacks worldwide that they're getting used to it," she said. After the 1997 attack in Luxor, it took tourists two years to return to Egypt in their pre-massacre numbers. So the Sharm bombings on July 23 _ in the high season for the resort _ raised the specter of a similar setback for the millions of Egyptians whose incomes depend on tourism directly and indirectly. Sharm and the smaller resorts of south Sinai account for 25 percent of Egypt's hotel rooms, and they draw a quarter of the annual number of tourists. Italy had initially cautioned its citizens about traveling to Egypt, which added to the gloom in Sharm as Italians traditionally dominate the scene in July and August. But Rome withdrew the warning. And by Aug. 13, the number of Italians arriving in Egypt exceeded the number departing for the first time since the attacks, the head of the Egyptian Tourism Federation El-Hamy el-Zayat said. The Italian presence in Sharm is "almost the same as this time last year," said Cappennani. | | In London, a spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents, Sean Tipton, said terrorist attacks tend to have "a very short term impact" on Britons. A spokeswoman for travel agency Thomas Cook said they received only a handful of cancellations for Egypt, and bookings were now back to normal. In Paris, Rochette of Nouvelles FrontieresRochette said their experience was similar for Sharm bookings. And after the July attacks, they did not see any cancellations for trips to Luxor and Hurgada, another Egyptian resort. Deals offered by the Egyptian tourism industry have played a role. Karim el-Minabawy, the head of one of Egypt's biggest travel agencies, Emeco, said foreign tour operators were encouraged by the Tourism Ministry's promise to share the financial risk of chartering a plane they might not be able to fill. Some hotels dropped the high-season surcharges they normally impose in August, maintaining their July prices. The 321-room Ritz-Carlton did not alter its prices, but did drop the fee it charges tour operators for cancellations, said spokeswoman Marwa Rakha. In a sign of confidence, it has just reimposed the fee. The Tourism Ministry's el Khatib predicted the year would end with about 9 million tourists having visited Egypt _ several hundred thousand fewer than had been forecast, but still a rise on the record 8.1 million visitors in 2004. Still not everyone is so upbeat. Vera Konstanty of Rewe Package Tours in Cologne said Germans remain hesitant about Egypt and bookings have not returned to pre-bombing levels. And in Sharm, not everything is back to normal. The Ghazala Gardens Hotel, which bore the worst explosion, remains closed. A facade of white canvas masks the wrecked building from the street. The restoration will take months. Checkpoints are much more numerous. Wary of car-bombs, police check the identity papers of anybody in a vehicle. And fears of another attack are keeping many tourists off the streets at night. |
