(1888PressRelease)
May 19, 2007 - Every hotel room in the city of Cairo, the outskirts of which encompass the pyramid sites, was booked out for most of the year - and 2007 is set to be no different, the body claims.
The pyramids are not the only ancient monuments in Egypt. There are many others, some of which are important enough to have been declared World Heritage Sites. The Great Sphinx of Giza, for instance, is situated next to the Great Pyramids and is equally as famous as its neighbours. To the south, the city of Luxor and its surrounding environs offer the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings, site of Tutankhamen's Tomb.
In recent years, overseas visitor numbers have also been boosted by the development of "products for upmarket tourists", according to the ETA.. Aside from culture tourism packages taking in the ancient monuments, the body has also promoted desert safari trips, sport tourism and marine wildlife tourism.
The Red Sea area in particular has been pushed by the ETA, which remarked that the programme is "doing well and lots of people come to enjoy the sea now". This is no understatement. Around 70 per cent of the nine million tourists that went to Egypt last year stayed in a Red Sea area resort.
This has fuelled a boom in the local property market that has seen more than 2,000 foreign nationals make a purchase in 2006. Resort development has been enhanced by central government funding which provides for the installation of utilities such as electricity and plumbing.
This year, the ETA expects that figure to double - along with property prices. Property prices in key resorts have risen 50 per cent in the last two years and rental incomes in these areas average 11 per cent, far in excess of the UK average. Tahir Ali of property broker Egypt Revealed, advised investors: "As with any an emerging market there is a window of opportunity."
And he added that "a growing economy, increasing tourism, encouragement of foreign direct investment by governments and direct flights are all good signs - Egypt has all these in place."
