I can't tell you how many boats are going out of Travco but I can tell you for a fact that Sharm is pretty empty at the moment... and t shouldn't be.
Rock bottom of the season in Sharm comes from mid-January through to the end of February, when nobody has any money left after the holidays, and it's really rather chilly at that time of year anyway (really - it's cooooold!)
December itself is usually pretty busy. There's a lull in the week that falls in the middle of the month, and then the christmas/new year vacation is usually very busy indeed.... but so far this year, it's not. The British-based centers seem to be faring better than the rest at the moment, but one of the largest contingents at this time of year is the Scandinavians and they are not here in numbers. Russian and Italian tourists have been conspicuously absent for most of the year, and I was told that Russia would stop flying during the election period, although I still see Russian 747s passing overhead. Actually, you hear them first - they have the loudest planes in the skies!
Whatever the case, they're not here in big numbers.
I know that my own centre has very few pre-bookings but this is not unusual - a lot of winter travel is last-minute but in my opinion it's still significantly down on the last 2 christmases I have worked here.
People who usually book their "winter fun-in-the-sun" holidays in advance have, in large numbers this year, not done so, and booked for more stable holiday destinations instead. Why book a flight 6 months or more in advance if you think the country might end up like Libya in a few months' time? One clear indication of the lack of business has been the virtual bankrupting of Thomas Cook, one of the UK's biggest holiday companies. They have directly singled out a lack of tourism to Egypt as part of the reason for their collapse.
One thing that skews the statistics a little is the timing of the vacation this year. Most major operators have their turnaround at weekends - everybody flies out on Saturday and the new folk arrive on Sunday - and this year, christmas happens at the weekend. Flying anywhere on the 24th is often ridiculously expensive, Britain is pretty much closed for business on the 25th and 26th (apart from pubs, of course), and the Germans are already too full of sausage to move. It might be that the busy holiday season has been pushed back a week... but nobody will really know until it happens.
... Ja... so ... I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment! I'd be interested to hear how other centres and other locations are faring.
Cheers
C.
