The food supplies to Cairo and Alexandria hotels have increased 40% from the previous year, due to rising occupancy rates.
“There is an increase in the food supplies to Cairo and hotels by over 40%, compared to the same period of the previous year,” said Tawfik Mokhtar, executive assistant manager and director of sales and marketing at The Nile Ritz-Carlton.
He explained that the reason for that is the high occupancy rates, particularly by the Arabs, whereas the rates exceed 75% currently, emphasising the hotels’ readiness for Ramadan.
Moreover, he added that the prices of imported food supplies increased by 100%, compared to 40% hike in prices of domestic products. The price difference is entirely bore by consumers. The price of alcoholic beverages also surged by 300%.
Mokhtar said that hotels don’t hoard food commodities anymore but rather purchase needed commodities only, due to the huge rise of costs, which makes over-purchasing in vain.
Mokhtar also noted that hotels in areas that celebrate Ramadan import more food commodities quantities by 30 %, in comparison to prior months.
Hisham Al-Abd, former deputy of the hotel facilities chamber in Alexandria, said that the governorate started its preparations to host internal and external tourists who are fleeing from the high temperature.
He added that there is a high rate of food commodities supply by at least 30% currently. It is expected that this rate will be consistent until September.
He noted that in Ramadan the turn out on hotels, restaurants, iftar, and sohoor increases, which boosts the supply of food commodities.
Al-Abd pointed out that there is a big increase in the costs of the national products that reaches 40%, and 100% for the imported items, which makes hotels resort to national products mainly, and to imported items per guests requests.
The general secretary of the Giza Chamber of Commerce and head of the Tourism Division, Mohamed Embaby, said that Cairo and Giza hotels are witnessing an increase in quantities of supplies by 40% at a minimum. These increases are predicted to continue during the month of Ramadan and the end of the year.
These increases may extend to the Red Sea governorate if the current hotel occupancy continues to recover, according to him, noting that the increases will not reach Luxor and Aswan, as well as South Sinai.
He stressed that there is a crisis suffered by the tourism sector, which is the reluctance of suppliers to postpone payment of their dues, and ask them to pay in advance; otherwise, products will be exported, increasing pressure on investors.
He added that the sector is neglected among 11 parties and cannot continue unless they are fully unified.
Majed Fawzy, former deputy of the hotel facilities chamber, said that the hotel supplies started to flourish in light of the current recovery in the inbound tourism movement both from the Arab world and the world.
Yet, he noted that this recovery only impacts the regions that have already been seeing more occupancy, including Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria. He added that the prices surged by 40%, which is a new burden on the sector, as it cannot afford all these increases in conjunction with the government demands that exhaust it and which it cannot evade.
He stressed that initiatives for the tourism sector must also include helping the sector meet its requirements.
