Operators are enjoying a rise in sales to Red Sea resorts as agents report back from fam trips and tourist boards plan activities to boost trade confidence in the regionRed Sea specialists have witnessed a surge in demand for the destination in the past month.
A combination of value-for-money offers and increased trade and consumer confidence in Egypt, now that political unrest has subsided, have driven the rally, operators have claimed.
“Business has bounced back – April and Easter were fantastic and, in the third week of May, our sales were up 20% year-on-year,” said Red Sea Holidays managing director Peter Kearns.
“Admittedly, revenues have not been as strong as we would have liked, but hotels are giving fantastic deals, so our margins are the same as last year.”
He said sales were “building up every day” and that repeat business was strong.
Kearns added that many hotels, including Red Sea Holidays’, were at 90% occupancy.
He also stressed that holidays to the region were now cheaper than in destinations such as the Canaries, not only as a result of the good deals available, but also due to the erosion of the value of the Egyptian pound against sterling.
Mosaic Holidays is pushing the message that the resorts are now “super value for money” because of the high quality of accommodation.
The operator’s sales manager, Darren Panto, said the average holiday price to Sharm el Sheikh was 20%-30% lower than last year.
In a bid to boost sales, Mosaic is offering agents up to £20 worth of Marks & Spencer vouchers for Red Sea bookings. It also plans to run agent fam trips to Sharm and El Gouna in November.
Longwood Holidays said the number of Red Sea enquiries had “increased considerably” over the past few days, with strong interest in golf and diving holidays.
“Agents are starting to get their confidence back in selling the destination,” added Alan Meadows, the operator’s agency sales manager.
The next step was to drive more “classical Egypt” sales. “Luxor is already starting to come back,” Kearns added.
Agent fam helps boost confidence in Sharm
Agents have returned from a Red Sea fam trip eager to sell the destination.
They claim their first-hand experience of three resorts in Sharm el Sheikh, during the five-day trip organised by Hays Travel Beds, allayed any fears they had about security in the Egyptian hotspot.
In fact, most of the 10 agents who went on the trip, which took in Nabq, Sharks Bay and Naama Bay, said they were not only keen to sell the Red Sea, but wanted to holiday there themselves.
“I felt completely safe and I now feel much more confident selling the destination and what it has to offer,” said Tineka Owen, senior sales consultant at Admiral Travel.
Annette Eastham, a worldwide specialist at Holiday Getaway, said the resort was “very calm”, with no obvious security problems.
“I wouldn’t feel at all perturbed sending clients there,” she said. “It’s so far away [from Cairo] that it’s almost a different country.
“We were on the road a lot of the time – going into the mountains to a Bedouin camp and going quad biking – and felt completely safe.”
Penny Watson, a sales consultant at Blue Sea Holidays, said the tight security measures on the roads and at hotels were “reassuring”. She added that she would return to Sharm for a personal holiday in October.
All three agents said they were impressed with the quality of hotels on offer.
Hays Travel Beds product sales manager Dan Steabler, who led the trip, said: “We have launched an incentive whereby the agent with the most bookings for the hotel in which we stayed – the five-star Royal Albatros Moderna – before the end of June, will get a free stay. The agents have updated their Facebook pages with the offer and are hyped up about selling Egypt.”
