Cairo, Egypt - June 7th, 2011 - Leading electronic payments network, Visa, has committed itself to helping attract tourists back to Egypt by continuing to work collaboratively with the tourism industry in Egypt, by running special promotions and by providing important research trends data about the spending habits of tourists visiting the country.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, revenues from inbound travel to Egypt account for around 11.5% of the country's GDP. In 2010, travellers from Russia accounted for 20% of the 12.7 million visitors to Egypt and are a target market for the travel and tourism community to continue focussing on.  Consumerism in Russia continues to thrive and influence Russians' behaviour as they seek to travel more, buy more and spend more. The 2.4 million Russian tourists who travelled to Egypt were responsible for the biggest share of tourism spending (14%) and will be the major focus of industry promotions and marketing campaigns.¹ 

Visa has recently teamed up with the Marriott Group, including JW Marriott, Marriott, Renaissance and Courtyard hotels in the region to offer special discounts on stay and/or dining to Visa cardholders who use their Visa cards as the method of payment. While the offer is open to all nationalities, Visa will be promoting Egypt properties as part of the company's marketing campaigns running in Russia, Commonwealth Independent States and South East Europe to attract premium customers back to Egypt.  All Visa Gold, Platinum or Infinite cardholders who use their payment cards will be eligible to receive these offers.  2

"In countries such as Egypt, where the travel and tourism industry is a major driver of the economy, there are very few sectors that are not impacted by fluctuations affecting the industry," said Tarek Elhousseiny, Visa's General Manager for North and West Africa. "As tourists return to learn about the country's ancient history and to experience the 'New Egypt', revenues will return to those businesses that support the tourism industry. This will take time.

At Visa, we believe that perhaps now more than ever, it's crucial to partner with players in the tourism sector in order to provide incentives that will help bring tourists back to Egypt and hasten the recovery of the industry and the economy."  

Among other activities, Visa conducts annual consumer research to understand how consumers approach their travel journey; what media they consume before planning a trip, where they intend to go on future trips and how they intend to pay.   Visa's network of millions of merchants and 1.8 billion cards in circulation helps to drive the sustainable development of the industry in collaboration with tourism authorities and market players.

¹ Minister of Tourism's speech at American Chamber of Commerce luncheon, 12 May Euromonitor International: Country Sector Briefing, Egypt: April 2011

²*Offers are subject to availability during peak periods and holidays

*Not valid with other promotional offers

*Valid only when payment is settled with Visa Gold, Visa Platinum or Visa Infinite card

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About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks--VisaNet--that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

For any inquiries please contact:
Amany Aboul Fetouh at TRACCS Egypt
Tel: (+202) 33046860
Fax: (+202) 33031219
Email: amany@traccs.net

© Press Release 2011