Abercrombie & Kent Sees Hike in Demand for Egypt

Abercrombie & Kent has reported a sudden, surprising surge in demand for Egypt, so strong that the company has added departures to all of its Egypt programs. The return to good times for the Egyptian travel industry has been a long time coming.

Perennially one of the top tourist destinations in the world because of its incomparable antiquities, Egypt has periodically been hit with setbacks. But, no incident ever staggered its tourism industry nearly as much as the popular revolution of early 2011, better known as the Arab Spring.

The world looked on wide-eyed as Egyptian students and women took to the streets demanding a more responsive government. They were able to succeed in challenging the powers of Egypt to the extent that the government held its first democratic elections. Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was an awesome historical moment, an emblematic event in the history of democracy and self-determination.

In the beginning, it was a staggeringly peaceful revolution, but eventually events led to incidents of violence. The violence that took place remained on the level of internal squabbles between political factions in Egypt. And, though there were a couple of violent incidents at resorts on the Sinai Peninsula, a popular tourist destination for Europeans, no faction targeted the tourist sites in Cairo and along the Nile that Americans visit in Egypt.

If the different factions agreed on one thing, it was the undeniable fact that tourism is a major part of the economic lifeblood of the country, providing almost 12 percent of GDP at that time. Tourism was protected by all sides of the quarrels, because no political faction wanted to be the one to disrupt tourism and put many Egyptian families out of work.

A seven-year dip
However, the stories of political violence scared away the tourists and instead of embracing Egypt’s democratic revolution, most of the world’s travelers shunned Egypt, setting off an economic downturn that lasted for years.

After a second election in 2014, which installed the former head of the army, Fattah al-Sisi, as president, the world began to perceive stability in Egypt and tourism started to flow slowly back into the country.

It was slow going until this year, according to Stefanie Schmudde, vice president, product development and operations of Abercrombie & Kent. Then, suddenly demand exploded.

“It has surged recently,” said Schmudde. “It is not a gradual upward curve. We saw the growth trend accelerate in 2018, but the growth of the latter half of 2018 and into 2019 has been substantially higher than any of us had initially predicted. We had predicted already very strong growth for 2019, but this has even surpassed our expectations in every way, which is phenomenal.”

New departures in the line-up
The growth has been so strong that A&K added 19 departures to its flagship Egypt program “Egypt and the Nile,” bringing the number of departures to 47.

And that’s not even the whole story.

“It’s across the board,” said Schmudde. “For anything we are offering in Egypt, we are starting to see a surge in bookings.”

The company has added 19 departures as well to its Jordan pre-extension to its “Egypt and the Nile” program.

“We’ve also added the same number of dates for that,” said Schmudde, “because Jordan has seen significant double-digit growth, as well, in combination with Egypt. You can go five days before the ‘Egypt and the Nile’ program and spend those five days in Jordan. With 10 days in Egypt, including a four-night Nile cruise, it becomes a 14-day program.”

A&K also offers a splashier, upscale Egypt-Jordan program in its Marco Polo series called “Petra to the Pyramids,” a 14-day tour that charters the Zein Nile Chateau. That, too, is seeing a surge in demand.

“We started with six departures,” said Schmudde. “They are all close to sold out now and we haven’t even launched it yet. We are going for an additional three departures now.”

Pent-up bucket-list demand wins out
But why now, are travelers suddenly rushing back to Egypt?

“I think people are just tired of waiting,” said Schmudde. “It’s a top bucket list destination for so many people. I think everyone is just realizing that now is the time to go. There has been pent-up demand and people have chosen other destinations and given Egypt a little bit more time to stabilize and stay out of the news. But, people are tired of waiting and want to get back to exploring.”

Whatever the reason, the Egyptians are happy to see this vital source of economic prosperity flowing back into their country, and A&K is happy that its Cairo office is thriving again.

“Egypt is really, really back,” said Schmudde. “It’s an exciting time, especially for Abercrombie & Kent because we have been operating continuously, even when other companies have pulled out of the area. So, to see the growth and the effect it has on our local office in Egypt, as well as for all of the people who are involved in the tourism industry, it is really phenomenal and exciting to see.”