At that time, we travelled to some of the Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and promoted these Red Sea resorts. But Cairo will always be the number one destination for the Arabs. About 85 per cent of the Arab travellers head to Cairo for their vacations. El-Beblawi, whose company receives about 40,000 Arab tourists a year, identified a third group of Arabs who come to Egypt in clumps for religious tourism. He stressed, however, that Arab tourism faces a set of obstacles that must be overcome, the most serious of which is arbitrary pricing.
Hotels increase their rates for Arab travellers.
We understand that rates should be different because the European guest patrons resorts more often throughout the year. However, there is a grave injustice in how this policy is applied to Arabs. For example, an individual Arab who goes to a hotel is charged double the price offered to a European. The second problem, according to Arab tourism experts, is the fierce competition between Egypt and other countries in attracting Arab travellers. There are now many countries that are successfully putting together competitive packages for Arab tourists.