Promoting Egypt as a Luxurious Tourism Destination

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management- Helwan University

2 Faculty of Tourism &hotel management- Helwan university- Tourism studies department- cairo- Egypt-

3 Faculty of Tourism& Hotel Management- Helwan University

Abstract

Luxury travel market represents mainly attractive and gorgeous destinations, lush accommodations, suitable transport amenities, and real travel experience. The root of the word ‘luxury’ returns back to mid seventeenth century and stems from the Latin word ‘luxus’, which means ’excess’. The concept of luxury tourism in today’s world perfectly fits its original meaning, as by all means it can be described as ‘excess tourism’. This type of tourism aims in giving extraordinary experience to its tourists, where some of the distinctive services offered to the luxury tourists are personal jet aircrafts, health spas, private island rentals, and private yacht. Data collection involved a questionnaire directed to travel agencies- type (A) in Cairo, another questionnaire was administered to a random sample of foreign tourists who had visited Egypt. The secondary method involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with government officials and experts at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, The Egyptian Tourism Federation and The Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion. The main findings show that high-end tourism is a promising market around the world, where rich people are increasing continually due to the rise of the affluent middle classes and wealthy tourists globally, who are seeking a unique tourism experience. The paper recommends that the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in cooperation with the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion should design an Egyptian official website that gives detailed information about the luxury destinations, luxury hotels, luxury attractions, and the deluxe provided services and facilities.

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