American University in Cairo AUC Knowledge Fountain Papers, Posters, and Presentations 2021 Post Covid-19 Tourism: Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a الترويج ل مسار العائلة /Niche Religious Tourism Destination السياحة بعد 19 المقدسة كوجهة للسياحة الدينية -COVID: Hend Elbehary [email protected] Mona Elsayed [email protected] Nada Abdelghany [email protected] Yasmine Mandour [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/studenttxt Part of the Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, and the Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons Recommended Citation Elbehary, Hend; Elsayed, Mona; Abdelghany, Nada; and Mandour, Yasmine, "Post Covid-19 Tourism: -COVID: الترويج ل مسار العائلة /Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a Niche Religious Tourism Destination .Papers, Posters, and Presentations. 83 .(السياحة بعد 19 المقدسة كوجهة للسياحة الدينية" (2021 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/studenttxt/83 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by AUC Knowledge Fountain. 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Post Covid19 Tourism: Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a Niche Religious Tourism Destination A Policy Paper Prepared by: Hend Elbehary Mona Elsayed Nada Abdelghany Yasmine Mandour Under the supervision of: Dr. Hamed Shamma Associate Professor of Marketing & BP Endowed Chair at the School of Business, The American University in Cairo June 2021 *Names are listed in alphabetical order* Published by: The Public Policy HUB The School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) The American University in Cairo (AUC) Project Director: Dr. Laila El Baradei, Professor of Public Administration Project Co-Director: Dr. Shahjahan Bhuiyan, Associate Professor of Public Administration & Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies & Administration Senior Project Manager: Mohamed Kadry, MPP Senior Project Specialist: Waleed Wagdy El-Deeb Senior Communication & Outreach Specialist: Ghadeer Ahmed Ali «The opinions in the paper are those of the authors and do not reflect AUC policies or views. They are published to stimulate further dialogue on issues and challenges facing Egypt in an attempt to expose graduate students to practical policy solutions.» THE PUBLIC POLICY HUB Table of Content • List of Figures 1 • List of Tables 1 • List of Abbreviations 2 • Executive Summary 3 1. Overview of the Egyptian Tourism Sector 3 1.1 The Significance of the Tourism Sector to the National Economy 4 1.2 The Tourism Sector Supply and Demand Side Analysis 5 1.2.1 The Tourism Sector Supply Side Analysis: Mass Tourism Vs. 5 Niche Tourism 7 1.2.2 Demand Analysis: International Vs. Domestic Tourists 8 1.3 The Tourism Sector Structural Challenges 9 1.4 The Egyptian Tourism Sector Resilience 10 1.4.1 The Impact of COVID19- on the Tourism Sector 12 2. Problem Statement 14 2.1 Rationale for Niche Tourism 14 2.2 Overview of Religious Tourism in Egypt and the HFT 15 2.3 Rationale for the HFT 16 3. Assessment of the HFT 18 3.1 Stakeholders Analysis 18 3.2 International Practices 19 3.2.1 Palestine 19 3.2.2 Jordan 19 3.3 Current Policies on Religious tourism and the HFT 20 3.3.1 Main Activities 20 3.3.2 Policy Assessment 21 4. Policy Alternatives and Recommendations 22 4.1 Policy Alternatives 22 4.2 Assessment of Policy Alternatives 28 4.3 Policy Recommendations 28 4.3.1 Implementation Plan 30 • References 32 • Appendix 1: Types of Niche Tourism in Egypt 40 Post COVID19- Tourism: Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a Niche Religious Tourism Destination 5 THE PUBLIC POLICY HUB List of Figures Figure 1: Tourism Overall & Direct Contribution to GDP in US Billion. 5 Figure 2: Tourism Overall & Direct Contribution to Employment in Millions. 5 Figure 3: Number of arrivals in thousands by top 7 nationalities 2014-2018. 8 Figure 4: 8 Figure 5: Egypt's Tourism Competitiveness Index for 2019 9 Figure 6: The Performance of the Egyptian Tourism Sector in Response to Crises 11 Figure 7: Tourists Arrivals in Millions and Tourists’ Expenditures in Billions USD 12 2010-2019 Figure 8: Number of Tourists’ Arrival (Aug 2019- Aug 2020) 13 Figure 9: Number of Touristic Nights Spent (Aug 2019- Aug 2020) 13 Figure 10: 14 Figure 11: HFT Map Description 16 Figure 12: Rationale for the HFT Selection as a Priority Niche Tourism Product 17 Figure 13: Approaches for Policy Alternatives Design for New Tourism Products 18 List of Tables Table 1: Comparison between the Number of Accommodations Lodging 10 across UE in 2015 Table 2: Policy Alternatives Scoring 28 Table 3: Proposed Implementation Plan 30 Table 4: Details on Niche Tourism Segments in Egypt 40 Post COVID19- Tourism: Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a Niche Religious Tourism Destination 1 THE PUBLIC POLICY HUB List of Abbreviations CBT Community-Based Tourism GoE Government of Egypt HFT Holy Family Trail MICE Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions MoETE Ministry of Education and Technical Education MoLD Ministry of Local Development MoPED Ministry of Planning and Economic Development MoTA Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities OBG Oxford Business Group OECD Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development TALCM Tourism Area Life Cycle Model TTCI Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index TVET Technical Vocational Education and Training UE Upper Egypt WTTC World Tourism and Travel Council Post COVID19- Tourism: Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a Niche Religious Tourism Destination 2 THE PUBLIC POLICY HUB Executive Summary The tourism sector constitutes a significant targeted marketing towards Christian pil- importance for the Egyptian economy, with grims to promote the HFT. a contribution of 11.9% to the GDP and a to- tal employment of 2.49 million in 2018. The Building on the current and past policies ad- sector comprises different tourism segments opted by the Egyptian government to pro- including both mass tourism and niche tour- mote the HFT, 3 policy alternatives were sug- ism, where Egypt is heavily dependent on the gested and assessed based on economic and former. Over the past years, the sector was technical criteria. The 3 policy alternatives hit by different internal and external shocks are: that left the sector struggling with instabilities 1. Introducing the Holy Family Trail as a in its revenues, and hence a decline in foreign “product destination” currency reserves. In addition, COVID-19 has 2. Introducing the Holy Family Trail as a “cul- introduced a new global norm that hurdles turally meaningful destination” the mobility of mass tourist groups and the 3. Introducing the Holy Family Trail as a functionality of the sector as it used to be. ‘place’s narrative’ In light of that, there is a need to shift ori- The culturally meaningful destination is rec- entation towards a niche tourism sector ommended as the most fitting policy frame- based on Butler’s (1980) Tourism Area Life work since it would address the particularly Cycle Model (TALCM). The religious tourism unique nature of the destinations across the sector was identified as a potential niche selected areas in UE across the HFT and ap- segment since it has been the focus of the peal to the target audience of spiritual dev- government over the past 5 years. The Holy otees among Christian pilgrims worldwide. Family Trail (HFT) is selected as the unique The reason behind the selection of this mod- product of focus given Robinson and No- el is the belief that tourism should be reintro- velli’s (2005) approach for niche tourism duced as a full-fledged package that aims at product prioritization. introducing tourists not only with the tangible heritage of the place they visit, but also with The promotion and development of the the intangible one behind its foundation. Holy Family Trail must primarily address the structural challenges in the sector, mainly A set of policies under this framework is pro- the lack of sufficient tourism services such as posed and an implementation plan outlining accommodation and transportation outside the recommended policy option is suggest- the touristic cities. In addition, it should also ed, where objective indicators, milestones, focus on the re-orientation of marketing of key activities, a suggested timeline, and rele- Egypt as a religious tourism destination with vant stakeholders are presented 1. Overview of the Egyptian Tourism Sector Egypt has been a tourism destination since The 19th century as well witnessed the early the pharaonic era, where travel for educa- seeds of organized tourism in Egypt, with the tional and recreational purposes by privi- promotion of transit tourism through con- leged families have been documented (Gyr, structing the “Overland Route” in 1840, a mail 2010). However, the 19th century marked the delivery route between India and England main factors for the development of tour- that passes through Egypt (Novelli, 2020). ism as an economic sector in Egypt (Novelli, The same period has witnessed an increase 2020). These factors included the discovery of in special facilities for tourists, which include the Rosetta Stone (Hagar Rasheed) and the Turkish baths and hotels. publishing of Description of Egypt Encyclopedia. Post COVID19- Tourism: Promoting the Holy Family Trail as a Niche Religious Tourism Destination 3 THE PUBLIC POLICY HUB 1. Overview of the Egyptian Tourism Sector In addition, the 19th century witnessed the with a focus on related services and infra- shift of tourism from a western phenome- structure. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed non to a Middle Eastern one with the launch- the development of beach tourism in Egypt ing of Thomas Cook & Sons excursions, the and the involvement of the private sector in first mass tourism and travel agency (Hunt- investments in the sector in general and Si- er, 2004).