Egypt’s Nile cruise bookings back with a bang after Covid halt

The Omicron Covid-19 variant has affected travel, but families are looking forward to their trips

Soukayna Boudouani recently traveled from the US with a friend to take an Upper Egypt Nile cruise and see the country's historical sites, including Luxor's Hatshepsut Temple, above. Photo: Soukayna BoudouaniShow less

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Egyptian Selvana Wagih has made it a winter holiday tradition to take a Nile cruise between the southern cities of Luxor and Aswan for the past six years – but she could not do so in 2020.

“I would have gone last year too, but my husband was nervous,” says Ms Wagih, 36.

This year, Ms Wagih's family revived the annual ritual, booking a three-day cruise for the winter break with her husband and two children, aged 3 and 8.

“It was difficult to find a booking. I wanted to spend New Year’s Eve on the boat, but that date wasn’t available,” says the history teacher, who lives in Hurghada on the Red Sea.

Selvana Wagih with her daughter on a Nile cruise ship in 2019. Photo: Selvana Wagih

Winter is usually peak season for the bucket-list destinations of Upper Egypt, when the weather is ideal and visitors take advantage of their holiday breaks.

But the industry took a beating after crew members and dozens of passengers on a Nile cruise vessel tested positive for Covid-19 in March 2020. Cruises were suspended until that October. Then the winter holiday period coincided with Egypt’s second coronavirus wave, and the distribution of vaccines had not yet begun in the country.

Now the Omicron variant of the virus presents a new challenge as it disrupts international travel, but there are reasons to be optimistic. The grand reopening of Luxor’s Avenue of the Sphinxes in November was a big boost to the city’s tourism, with hotels fully booked, and Egypt’s visitor numbers have been increasing in recent months.

“We had a very successful summer. Our numbers were really good,” Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Lamia Kamel told The National. “Based on what we saw in the summer, we expect a very successful winter as well.”

Soukayna Boudouani recently travelled from the US with a friend to celebrate her 30th birthday in Egypt, taking a Nile cruise from Luxor and Aswan and stopping by Cairo.

“I wanted to do something big for my 30th - mostly historical - and Egypt is full of history,” says Ms Boudouani, who lives in South Carolina.

She visited Luxor the week before the Avenue of the Sphinxes opening and it was already packed with visitors.

“We couldn’t even take a good picture at the Abu Simbel temples. There were too many tourists,” she says. “I noticed there were a lot of Russian groups too.”

Soukayna Boudouani celebrated her 30th birthday in November with visits to Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Cairo. Photo: Soukayna Boudouani

Marwan El Sadek, chief executive of Egypt Tours agency, says Nile cruises are 90 per cent booked for the Christmas and New Year period and business is close to 2019 levels.

“Last year, boats were on and off. This year, all the boats are on,” he says.

Whereas last winter 75 per cent of Egypt Tours’ business was the local market at heavily discounted rates, this year the division is 60 per cent foreigners and 40 per cent local.

Similarly, Mostafa Sayed, chief operating officer of Nile Cruisers, says several ships have sold out for the holidays, with most tourists coming from the US and Latin America.

Because of the Omicron variant, however, a group of 50 people from South Africa who were supposed to arrive on December 4 had to cancel.

Egypt halted direct flights from seven African countries in response to the variant, which was first reported in South Africa on November 24. A few countries, including Kazakhstan and Canada, have increased restrictions for travellers from Egypt.

“If there are no travel restrictions from countries, there will be a lot of tourists,” Mr Sayed says.

A ship cruises along the Nile in Luxor in November 2018, pre-pandemic. Photo: Reuters

With the ongoing uncertainty, more people are waiting until the last minute to book, says Amr Badr, Abercrombie & Kent’s managing director for Egypt and the Middle East.

“The lead time is much shorter. Egypt used to be booked years in advance. Now Egypt is booked weeks and sometimes even days in advance,” he says.

Another trend he has noticed is people booking smaller private boats such as the dahabiya, which have a maximum of eight cabins.

“The Nile cruises are on a trajectory to grow and I think the demand on these smaller, luxury-type boats is going to continue to intensify,” Mr Badr says.

Yasser Abdelkhalek, Luxor branch manager for Memphis Tours, says tourists also now feel more at ease, given the mandatory vaccination of all workers in Egypt’s hospitality and tourism industry.

“This helped a lot,” he says. “Hopefully the positive situation continues and business doesn’t stop again. 2020 was a terrible year.”