Luxor’s big hotel slump in 2012 is Egypt’s worst

Luxor hotel year-on-year performance dramatically slumped in 2012, according to the latest Egypt hotel market overview report by Colliers International.

The historic destination was the only area in Egypt where average occupancy fell in 2012, by 19.3% compared to the previous year. Average daily rate also fell, by 3.2%, and RevPAR slumped by 21.9%.

Even Downtown Cairo, closest to the ongoing Tahrir Square riots, reported an average occupancy increase of 30.1% in 2012 on 2011. Other areas achieved occupancy increases of between 15.9% and 27.1%.

Colliers International head of hotels — MENA region Filippo Sona said Luxur had “really suffered” due to its tendency as a “stopover destination”.

“Luxor tends to be very much a stop-over; you’re not going to spend two weeks in Luxor, youll go to Sharm El Sheikh. The hotels there live off multi-stop tours – Cairo, Luxor and Aswan was popular.

“However, from an international point of view, people will go to Egypt and for their sense of security they will stay the whole two weeks in Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada [rather than travelling around the country], and Luxor has suffered massively from that,” explained Sona.

He added that the destination had also received fewer domestic travellers last year.

“There’s become a sense of community living – people want to stay where they are. This is going to change the traveller trends,” asserted Sona.

Asked when hotel performance in Luxor was likely to pick up, Sona said he did not expect to see improvements within the next 12 months.

International brands operating in Luxor include Sofitel, Sheraton, Hilton and Iberotel among others.

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