Hotels and resorts in Hurghada, El Gouna, and Sahl al-Hashish have seen very high reservation rates in the run-up to the Eid al-Fitr holiday, with many hotels now fully booked up, but high demand has driven up prices by 25 to 40 percent during the high season of Eid.
In Hurghada, the price of a double room during Eid ranges between LE800 to LE1,000 in four star hotels, and between LE1,200 to LE1,600 in five star hotels.
The double room in some complexes within El Gouna and Sahl Hashish resorts exceeds LE2,000 per night.
Businessman Abdel Naby Aboul Hassan stated that prices have gone up due to high demand from Egyptians over the holiday season, coupled with a reduced overall capacity in resorts since the downing of a Russian plane over Sharm El-Sheikh in October last year.
The Egyptian tourism industry, already struggling since the 2011 political uprising, suffered a further blow after the plane crash, with many airlines and travel agencies suspending trips to the formerly booming Red Sea resorts.
Hassan called on the Tourism Ministry to dispatch committees to inspect the standard of services provided to guests at hotels, monitor food quality and regulate prices.
Hurghada's tour guide syndicate cheif, Bashar Abu Taleb, said hotels have raised the prices for Egyptians out of fear they will make a loss on Egyptian customers from damage to property and high food consumption.
He pointed out that in the current slump in trade, during off-peak times foreigners could book a full board double room in a five star hotel for LE300.
Mohamed Suweilam, a marketing official in a tourist company, said that despite the problems Egyptians might cause whilst staying in resorts, domestic tourism is a lifeline for the sector in the present crisis. It cannot, however, bring in the same revenue as foreign tourism, he stated.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
