Red Sea Hotel Occupancy Is Running Near 80% as the Winter Season Starts, Travel Association Says

Hotel occupancy along the Red Sea coast is running at about 80% as the winter season opens, Dr Atef Abdel Latif, head of the Mosaferoon travel and tourism association and deputy head of the Marsa Alam Investors Association, told the Egyptian outlet Tawasl News.

He put the average for Red Sea hotels at around 80%, said many individual hotels are running between 80% and 90%, and expects the rate to rise over the coming weeks. He named Hurghada, El Gouna and Marsa Alam as the towns seeing the increase. These are association estimates; no official occupancy statistics were cited.

A separate Tawasl News report said occupancy at Red Sea hotels and resorts was approaching 80% on the basis of booking indicators, and that German, British, Russian and Italian travellers lead arrivals at the coast's resorts, with Hurghada and Marsa Alam international airports continuing to receive flights from several markets. Both reports come from the same outlet, so neither independently confirms the other.

Abdel Latif linked part of the current level to the El Gouna Film Festival, which he said draws Arab and Gulf visitors and supports longer stays. He also said successful editions of the festival have been reflected in higher sales of tourist property to foreign buyers in El Gouna, particularly German and other European buyers, though he gave no sales figures.

An occupancy rate describes how full hotels are at one point in the season. It is not a count of visitors or of what they spend, and the reports give no breakdown by town or hotel category.