Egyptian travel companies profit on Turkey visits due to falling lira
Egyptian tourism companies are seeking to take advantage of the low exchange rate of the Turkish lira to promote their programs in Turkey even after the summer season is over.
Mohammed Abdel-Qader, who works in an Egyptian telecommunications company, has been planning for a year to spend New Year's Eve in Turkey. “I have always wanted to experience snowboarding in mountainous areas,” he told Al-Monitor.
Abdel-Qader considers himself lucky to travel at this time in light of the drop in the exchange rate of the Turkish lira. “This decline allowed me to go shopping for clothes in Turkey, with a total budget of $2,000.”
The embattled Turkish lira hit an all-time low of 18.4 versus the dollar Dec. 20, hours before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced measures to bolster the currency. The lira rebounded strongly after the announcement, but is still about 40% down against the greenback this year.
For Egyptian tourism companies, this downfall was an opportunity to market tourist trips to Turkey. Hussein Al-Ansari, director of an Egyptian tourism company, told Al-Monitor he instructed his employees to encourage customers to spend their holidays in Turkey and take advantage of the price gap.
