Thoughts on the future of Sharm

[Red Sea Shadow]

On the subject future of Sharm.
Religion is also tradition, to understand the meaning of it one needs to have a background through birth, family, education and living there .
Why should western way of lives apply in Egypt. The egyptian people have their own tradition and believes. Without speaking or understanding the language how will you ever know what is in people's heart and mind . Just visiting a country during holiday, reading the press or expats working there in a western environment doesn't qualify to form an meaningful opinion. Didn't someone here say at the beginning of the events this would be a short lived stint ? Didn't one emigrant say he wanted to be with his people during the events only to draw a silly comment ?
The egyptian people will follow the path they choose, it is none of our business.
Mass tourism in Egypt is only about 15 years old and one government representative recently said their priority is not the tourist industry.

You said it all mate

 

[boulderjohn]

The rising prices for the flight and/or stay might be related to less tourists you know.. When volume drop you might need to increase the price just for the business to stay viable.
If I have an airline and know that I will fly with a full aircraft vs a half-full aircraft, that does something to how much I need each passenger to pay to break even.

This is, of course, the opposite of the law of supply and demand. When volume drops on the use of your product, the supply and demand reaction is to drop the price in order to entice more customers and increase volume. If people are not flying because the prices are too high, raising the prices will not lure them back.

On the other hand, if you have a small volume of customers who will pay whatever price for your product, then you can charge whatever you want and thus make up for small volume through artificially high prices. You see that in the U.S. with college textbooks. Those books will never be best sellers, but when a professor assigns a text to a class, the students have no choice but to buy it, so the price can be ridiculously high. The companies help this process by continually updating the texts with new editions, which limits the ability of students to buy used texts.

 

[Tigerman]

Well, the prices for a flight to Sharm (or elsewhere in Egypt) from here has been redicilously low in the first place because there where loads of people going and loads of competition. Theres still quite a few here who want to go, but not enough to keep sending 4-5 flights each weekend to Sharm alone.

 

[Interceptor121]

When the whole thing started in the 80s there were only Sunday flights. The everyday flight options have kicked in as Sharm not only became more popular in diving but as a response to more Russians and eastern europeans looking for a beach holiday, who has been in the place knows that there are not many Germans or French going majority are British and Russians, even the Italian population has been decreasing as the place actually along the years has become more expensive. The flight costs have never been particularly cheap for example from London to Egypt, what has always been competitive are the hotel costs which right now are a bargain. Sharm new terminal was mostly for easyjet and low cost airlines which still maintain 4 flights per week.
The proof of the pudding will come in November to see if the whole things economically cracks or stands

 

[Crowley]

Well - moving slightly back from the other passionate debates I copy you this email received from PADI this evening:

Dear PADI Member (thanks for the personal touch, there, PADI - C.)

Please note: the below listed events are cancelled due to the small number of registrations:
· ScubaPRO Event Hurghada, 12./13.9.2011
· ScubaPRO Event Sharm el Sheikh, 15./16.9.2011
· PADI ON TOUR Event Sharm el Sheikh, 7.10.2011

Thanks a lot for your comprehension.

Kind regards

Your PADI staff

The Scubapro events were well attended last year and seemingly well regarded by attendees I spoke to (I didn't go, I was night diving in Champion's Pub House Reef) so I think the cancellation is significant, in terms of the amount of staff here, and how unwilling they are to spend money on un-necessary registration fees. I think that sentiment in itself gives a good perspective on life a s a foreign dive professional in Sharm at the moment.

Cheers,

C.

 

[Interceptor121]

Based on Crowley post the sentiment in the industry seems to be that it will crack in October then!

 

[ElChe]

Egypt was the premier dive destination for Hungarian divers but after the revolution many people chose another destinations (Croatia, Malta, etc.) I've been to Egypt in July for the 12th or 13th time, we had a nice time but I saw the differences, there are much less crowd in the airport, Hurghada or under water. (Actually I was happy when I didn't have to fight with the other dozen dive groups for a nice spot.) But now I'm waiting for the elections. In my opinion _everything_ can happen, maybe Egypt will be basically the same, it can be more liberal or more fundamental country. I don't know. The problem: nobody else knows. Big, big problem...

 

[Tigerman]

I know as a fact that there is lots of people planning to go down to Egypt this fall that is basically waiting till the last minute to book, due to the current unpredictable situation. I alone have 10-15 friends whos planning to go down there (I woulda been one of them, but cant get the time off work) in october, but they are not booking till just before they go, just in case something happens.

 

[divebunnie]

Crowley you took the words out of my mouth. When I saw that email, I thought exactly the same. A sign of the times

 

[macrobubble]

Interesting statement:

FJP secretary general: beach tourism should not be allowed in Egypt

Egypt, a majority Muslim country, “should not allow beach tourism,” said Secretary General of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Saad Katani.
“Egyptian beaches should not be for naked people who wear bikinis. We must protect the Egyptian youth from seduction,” said Katatni.

Here

...especially considering the latest poll:

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party came in first place with 32 percent,

Here