Travco Travel topped the list of tourism companies in terms of tourist arrivals in 2014, having brought in 700,000 tourists, according to Public and Media Relations Manager Yara Rizkallah.
Rizkallah said the company is working to increase the number of those arriving from Western Europe considering that this is company’s main market, especially France, Germany, and the UK.
Travco Travel operates and owns around 46 floating and non-floating hotels and resorts in the Red Sea, South Sinai, and the North Coast.
Despite a relative improvement in the number of arrivals last year, Egypt has suffered decreasing numbers of tourists over the past 4 years according to Rizkallah, who added that ‘’the decline in arrivals to Egypt negatively impacted the number of tourists that Travco aims to bring annually’’.
Travco, according to the Ministry of Tourism, was able to attract over 1 million tourists in 2010, but this number dropped to 700,000 last year.
Travco hopes to return to the same indicators it had achieved before the 25 January Revolution. This is especially with signs of a return to political stability and soon to be held parliamentary elections, according to a company official who preferred to remain anonymous.
The official said the company hopes to complete special investments in constructing two hotels on the Red Sea and North Coast, with investments exceeding EGP 350m by the end of this year.
Travco is one of the largest companies interacting with major tourism companies that organise tourism programmes in Egypt, with German tour operator TUI at the forefront, the official said.
Tourism inflows during 2014 were best in hotels on the Red Sea and South Sinai compared to those in Luxor and Aswan, according to the official.
“We have a promotional plan to market Egypt in European markets through cooperating with our European partners, to reach at least a 1 million tourist threshold by the end of the year,’’ he said.
Travco’s promotional plans during the current year will not only be limited to intensifying marketing campaigns for beach tourism in the South Sinai and the Red Sea. It will also work to re-market the cruise ships that travel between Luxor and Aswan, according to the official.
Cruise tourism between Luxor and Aswan has been the hardest hit over the past four years according to the Egyptian Hotels Association.
The number of cruises in Luxor and Aswan number 286, according to the Egyptian Hotels Association. However, 85% of them have halted operations, according to the Travco official.
