‘Help us shift perceptions about Egypt with the travelling public’

Tarek Imam, deputy managing director of Traveline-Egypt, Jules Verne’s DMC partner in Egypt, adds that bookings have still not recovered to the levels seen before the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7.

“The conflict is concentrated in a very localised area, close to the Gaza-Egypt border, which is very far from the tourist areas where we operate,” he explains. “Egypt does not want to enter into this conflict, we believe there has to be a peace process.”

“In 2023 Traveline-Egypt was taking bookings and had sell-out departures all the way to 2026, and that’s why the moment a peace agreement is signed, I’m confident things will come back very quickly,” he adds. “All our boats are operating, and we are ready.”

Waiting for a Grand opening

Egypt is holding an ace up its sleeve to boost future tourism arrivals, the opening of the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which will be the largest archaeological museum in the world, with more than 100,000 artefacts. Now that it is in the hands of private ownership, Imam is more confident that could happen by the end of the year. “I live beside it, and it is finished, it’s just the opening they need to arrange.”

Adams adds: “A fixed date for the museum opening will certainly help, and we want to plant that seed with agents, when that day comes, that Egypt is a historic, innovative, attractive and most importantly, a safe destination. But agents will need to be ready, because it’ll be a late booking for clients who want to be among the first inside.”

Jules Verne and Traveline’s partnership in Egypt goes back 40 years, and Imam praises the pioneering spirit of the operator and its willingness to entertain out-of-the-box ideas to help attract clients.

One of these innovations was longer 14-night cruises all the way from Cairo, through rural Egypt to Luxor and Aswan, onboard a luxury Nile paddle steamer, originally built in 1918 for the Royal Navy and later converted for use by King Farouk.

“I fell in love when I first saw this machine,” says Imam, of the SS Misr, which he discovered languishing in a Cairo shipyard, and obtained special permission to restore back to her former glory. She has 24 individually decorated cabins and suites, with marble bathrooms and full-size tubs, along with private balconies.

Another innovation adopted by Jules Verne in Egypt almost 30 years ago was a short break programme under the guise of ‘A weekend at the Pyramids’. However, since the pandemic, demand for these very short breaks has not returned, so Jules Verne introduced the slightly longer Gems of Cairo four-night tour, based at the Crowne Plaza West Cairo Arkan Hotel, which is set within ‘modern’ Cairo, while offering easy access to the Pyramids at Giza.

Adams explains: “The Gems of Cairo tour was first operated in 2023, with enough success to warrant continuation to current season, and we have launched 2025 dates and even 2026 recently. The opening of the GEM (hence the name of the tour) will doubtlessly be an extremely significant boost to this tour.”