Qatar’s tourists shun Egypt over unrest

By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff ReporterA good number of people from Qatar cancelled their vacation plans in Egypt during Ramadan and Eid holidays due to the unrest there and there is almost no tourist booking for that destination now, travel agents and tour operators in Doha said yesterday.The holidaymakers, mostly Egyptians, changed their plans when violence continued to escalate across the country’s major cities.The unrest has hit Egypt’s tourism - a vital part of the economy - as foreign governments have warned holidaymakers to stay away, prompting some foreign travel agents to stop all trips there. “We stopped accepting travel bookings to Egypt since the past one month because we have heard tales of foreigners being stranded in Cairo. In fact at the moment, it seems nobody is willing to go there,” a tour operator’s spokeswoman said. Instead of heading to Egypt during the Eid break, many Qatar residents chose other destinations such as Thailand, Kathmandu, Manila and India, she said.“Fear has prevented many of our customers from proceeding with their travel plans to Cairo as many cancelled their bookings. But a handful that chose to go preferred to travel by road,” a spokesperson for an Egyptian travel agent said.He said people preferred to go by land in order to avoid problems at the point of entry or harassment from the military.“People were not so sure if they will be allowed into the country if they travelled by air, so they chose to go by land, believing they could manoeuvre their way and avoid troubled spots,” he said.According to him, his company used to arrange travels to Egypt for around 200 people a month during the vacation period but now not a single person is showing up.“Between mid-February and July used to be our busiest time and we usually see many holidaymakers booking to go to Cairo, but now there is none. Instead we are seeing an increase among those going for pilgrimage to Makkah,” he said.Another travel agent said his company had stopped organising travel tours to Egypt since the beginning of Ramadan, but said it still gets a handful of customers asking for hotel bookings in Cairo.“We are seeing a dwindling in number of passengers to Cairo nowadays and many that had earlier travelled during the Eid break are now returning in large numbers,” an agent said.An official at another travel company said only up to 25% of those who booked to travel to Egypt eventually did, while the rest either cancelled or changed their destinations.“Those who travelled with us to Egypt were mostly Egyptians holidaying home, while other passengers like Qataris and the rest went to Bangkok, Dubai, Bahrain, London and elsewhere in Europe,” an agent said.However, he claimed his company did not feel much impact in terms of business due to the unrest in Egypt.“Majority of our travellers didn’t out-rightly cancel their trips, they just changed it to other destinations,” he said.However, some operators said that they did not experience any serious change in the flow of passengers to Egypt.“We still receive daily almost the same number of passengers willing to travel to Egypt as we have seen during Ramadan and Eid. The bulk of these travellers are Egyptians,” a tour attendant said.