MOHAMED EL MASRI
Chairman & CEO, Tropic Travel
Tourism / Egypt
“Egypt is something exclusive. We have a lot of very premium offerings.”
Tropic Travel is considered one of the most advanced travel agents with branches in Cairo – Egypt (Tropic Travel), Dubai – UAE (Al Wafaa Tourism) and Shenzhen – China (Tropic Travel). We spoke to Mohamed El Masri Chairman & CEO, Tropic Travel which plans to open branches in Beijing and Shanghai in 2016.
How do you evaluate the current situation of Egypt’s tourism sector?
Safety is something that needs to be highlighted in Egypt’s situation. Tourists in Egypt are safe and the quality of hospitality is much higher than it is in other similarly touristic countries. It is important to highlight the honesty of the working population, 85-90% of Egyptians are honest and hardworking.
If you take a taxi in Paris and do not know the way, instead of paying €30, you will end up paying €80. In Prague, for the same destination, you could pay €10, or €110. This does not happen in Egypt. We began working with the Hong Kong market in 2000. Now we have been working in the mainland China market for 4-5 years. The biggest obstacle we face is introducing to Chinese tourists the variety of the Egyptian product.
The three main attractions are included in the classic tour, where they come to Cairo for one or two nights, go for three night’s cruise to Luxor and Aswan, and finalize their stay snorkelling and scuba-diving in Hurghada for a night or two. We specially highlight the Pyramids, the Nile Cruise through Luxor and snorkelling in the red sea.
What was the outcome President Xi visit to Egypt?
President Xi was well received because the relationship between the Egyptian government and the Chinese government is good and improving. Due to worldwide politics, I know Egypt and China will have a good, strong relationship. China wasn’t open as an international market until recently. The potential is huge but we will still encounter obstacles to maximizing the potential of the market. There are still some restrictions in the Chinese market preventing them from being open to the rest of the world.
What is your positioning with the Chinese market?
We are trying to maximize the number of Chinese visitors and we are trying to reach another segment in the Chinese market, which is a higher level visitor—or as we say la crème de la crème. The Chinese who are coming to Egypt now are limited budget tourists and we are aiming to target a wider segment including the luxury traveler. This is what we are going to concentrate on in 2016.
My hope for Egypt and Tropic Travel is that Egypt will no longer be seen as a cheap destination. Egypt is something exclusive. We have a lot of very premium offerings. We should have premium tourists and quality tourists. Egyptian history, weather and beaches are unique. Culture, leisure, diving, snorkelling and safaris among many other offerings can be found in Egypt. There are a lot of nice things to see in Egypt, which you can never see in other places. We should aim at attracting no less than 80 million tourists to Egypt on a yearly basis.
