How is the 2009 season going in the Red Sea?

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muha

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I have a question to all Red Sea divers - how 2009 season is going in Red Sea?
Do you see any affect of economic slowdown on diving industry?
 
Don't know about the whole red Sea.
But I just came back from Marsa Alam.:shakehead:
It was just our group and some others in a 209 bed hotel.
One of the bigger resorts had just 2 guests.:shocked2:
Good for a group of divers.Bad for the area.
 
good question! I'm going on the 20th :D
 
Dahab is exceptionally quiet. Hotels are at 15-18% occupancy right through until end of August looking at their official figures ive seen.

Large number of instructors getting 2-3 days work per MONTH as its so quiet. Sharm is very quiet wth lots of instructors trying elsewhere out of desperation for work. Some bars only opening a few days a week.

In short, its very VERY quiet. Im lucky to have 7 days a week work - most of my friends have none.

One hotel whose centre ive worked for had 12 guests last week in the entire hotel. Where i work is rated for 389 rooms and had 26 people last week (its up to 36 this week).
 
I work all over the Red Sea and I can confirm that it's extremely quiet all over the area (Dahab, Sharm, Hurghada, and Marsa Alam). I'm currently in Dahab and there's like 2 or 3 groups per dive site (at that time of the year it used to extremely crowded). In a week I'll be heading to Sharm and the people there say it's very quiet as well. Regarding Hurghada and Marsa Alam, the boat operators I'm dealing with are suffering.
 
Just got back from Sharm and Dahab. I was there exactly the same time one year ago. It is only about 30% of the level I saw in the previous year in Sharm, Dahab was empty. Very sad indeed.
 
My wife and I will be heading there tomorrow. We will be on a Blue o Two Boat (Melody). Based on that most of their dive trips are sold out for the month of July and August, it does not look like the liveaboards are suffering as much?

Russell
 
Not all their trips are, still spaces on lots. Compared to normal years where all operators are sold out all the time for that time period too. All of Egypt is very very quiet.
 
VERY sorry to hear this although we are also experiencing substantial declines over here on Catalina Island in the States so it is not surprising. I do hope to get there myself within the next 12 months.
 
When I was there last month Marsa Alam seemed like a purpose built tourist resort missing only one thing - tourists! :-(

The locals were very friendly nonetheless and I really hope business picks up for them soon - although from a diving perspective, the less people around the better.

J
 

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