Occupancy rate in Luxor hotels reach 0%

"Where is the place of Luxor? In the heart of Morsi" reads a small sign held by a little boy during a protest for workers in the tourism sector, protesting against the deterioration of the sector, the recession and the monopoly of big companies. Most of the hotels inLuxor, which used to be jam packed with visitors have become free of tourists, while recession looms over all types of trade related to tourism. The tourism sector had not witnessed such a crash, even after the massacre of Deir el-Bahari in 1997. The crisis in 1997 ended after three months.   The current crisis in the sector has been ongoing since the revolution last year. Tourism experts and officials said the current situation was due to continuing protests across Egypt along with bad government decisions. The occupancy rate of hotels in Luxor reached 41 percent in the last period, then decreased to 21 percent after the Constitutional Declaration and the subsequent protests. Dr Ezzat Saad, the governorate of Luxor denied rumours of putting 200 hotels up for sale, saying that things are not that bad in Luxor. He said those sorts of rumours have a negative impact on the sector. The governor said that the city of Luxor is currently planning for other types of tourism such as bigger events. The city will host an international tournament of Kung Fu as well as a global conference for orthopedics which will be held in the coming weeks, along with the African Film Festival. Saad said the city has also signed agreements with Turkish and Russian airlines to charter 40 flights which should contribute to easing the recession. Member of the chamber of tourism companies Major General Hafiz Hussein said that the sale of 200 floating hotels is a rumour that will affect the entire sector. While the chairman Tharwat Agami demanded authorities pay attention to the sector, stressing that it is has completely collapsed as evident in the loss of tourism over Christmas and New Year. He said some occupancy rates had fallen to seven percent. “Losses in the tourism sector have amounted to about a billion Egyptian pounds; 250,000 Egyptian pounds a month are lost because of the recession,” said Mohammed Othman, deputy member of the Regional National Authority for Promoting Tourism. Othman added that the statements of some extremists such as threatening to destroy Luxors monumental statues are taken seriously by the foreign tourism companies. Arabstoday saw the original report of the occupancy rates of the hotels of Luxor issued by the department of tourism development in the governorate. The report shows that the total occupancy rate in hotels reached 23.5 percent - the same hotels used to witness an occupancy rate of 100 percent. It also shows that a large number of hotels rooms are completely empty, while the highest occupancy rate was found in the five-star hotels and historic hotels.