Experts expect no significant impact on Egypt’s tourism after Dubai’s alcohol-related measures

Dubai started the 2023 year by cutting off a 30% tax on alcohol sales and making liquor licences free, in an attempt to boost business and tourism.

Some Egyptians paid attention to these measures having concerns that this decision might impact Egypt as one of the main tourists’ hubs in the Middle East.

So Daily News Egypt discussed with tourism stakeholders to learn more about the impact of this decision on Egypt as a tourist destination, in addition to discussing if Egypt needs to take similar measures.

Yasser Sultan, Egyptian Travel Agents Association’s (ETAA) General Assembly member and General Manager of Egyptian Valley Tours, and Elhamy El-Zayat, former Chairperson of the Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF), stressed that these measures are not expected to negatively impact the tourism movement in Egypt.

For his part, Sultan explained that Dubai is not a direct competitor tourism market to Egypt, as Dubai depends mainly on the shopping, conferences and the entertainment tourism patterns, while Egypt depends mainly on the beach tourism in addition to the cultural tourism. So the competitive edge is not in the prices of the alcohols or the taxes but it is in the patterns or tourism products that Egypt offers which are unique.