Expedia's manager in Egypt: Packages account for 30% of total bookings and hotel-only for 70%
The United States leads online bookings for Egyptian tourist cities
Flight ticket bookings to the Egyptian destination through Expedia grow 23%
Global company Expedia revealed in its annual report on the changes taking place in the tourism industry, particularly online travel or e-tourism, that the tourism industry generated revenues of $1.6 trillion in 2018, 44% of which came from online bookings.
The report said the Egyptian market saw notable growth in online bookings through Expedia in the first nine months of 2019, with tourist demand for Cairo rising by 34% compared with the same period last year. The average length of stay for hotel-only bookings was 2.9 nights, rising to 3.9 nights for full programs (packages).
Red Sea cities saw demand rise by 20% from January to last September compared with the same period of 2018, with an average length of stay of 3.3 nights for hotel-only bookings and 4.7 nights for full booking programs (packages).
For his part, Maged Mina Habashy, Expedia's manager in Egypt, explained that packages account for 30% of total bookings for the Egyptian destination, while 70% are hotel-only bookings.
Habashy revealed that the United States tops the list of countries booking the most to Egypt through Expedia online, both for hotel-only stays and for packages that include hotel and flights. The UAE comes second in hotel-only bookings and Italy second in package bookings, while Britain ranks third on both lists.
He added that flight ticket bookings to Egypt through Expedia rose by 23% in 2019 compared with last year, with the United States accounting for the largest share, 72% of total flight bookings, followed by Canada, Britain, Germany and Italy, though with small shares.
The report reviewed details of online flight bookings by tourist destination in Egypt: Cairo recorded about 102,000 flight ticket bookings through Expedia, accounting for 76% of total online bookings, while flight tickets to Hurghada reached 11,000, Sharm El-Sheikh 9,000, Luxor 5,473, Aswan 2,381 and Alexandria 2,335.
It is worth noting that Expedia's global online travel and tourism booking site records about 750 million visits a month from users around the world, with 352 million room nights booked through it at an annual growth rate of 13%. The site features about 500 airlines from around the world, and the company invests about $1.3 billion a year in technological development, while its marketing investments reach $5.7 billion.
