Analysis of digital media in the Middle East and North Africa Region

                                                                   
    Fig 1: logos of various social media. Source: http://www.middleeastsocialmedia.com/

Introduction

The competitive dynamics of the media industry is being transformed throughout the world. All across the world, the popularity of traditional media channels such as print media, TV broadcast and Radio broadcast are depleting and is being replaced by the digital media. Not only is the digital medium encroaching upon the space of the traditional media; but also changing the dynamics of revenue model- so far enjoyed by the traditional media. Even in the digital media itself, lot of changes are happening. The traditional boundaries, between media companies, telecom operators, handset manufactures and internet service provider is getting blurred. Everyone is trying to encroach upon each other’s space.

The digital media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is still in its nascent stage, as compared to other developed parts of the world such as Western Europe and North Africa; but given the fact that huge investments are made in ICT infrastructure, internet and mobile penetration are increasing at a rampant speed and a new wave of political change is happening all across the region, digital media seems to have a huge potential to grow in the region. The following research article will do an analysis of Digital media, its present state and its future prospect; in the MENA region. It will take help from reports from sources such as: Booz and Company, PWC, Arab Media Outlook, Spot On PR, Neilson etc.  

Advantages of digital media:

Digital media offer some unique advantages, which traditional media such as TV & Radio broadcast and print media cannot offer.  Some of the unique advantages are:-

·         Economical: digital media is very economical. Having a brick and mortar shop will cost a lot; in contrast to this having a web presence is much cheaper. It does not cost much to develop and market a website.

·         Curtails geographical barriers: a very remarkable feature of digital media is that, it could be accessed from any part of the globe. Geographical barriers often create challenge for traditional media sources such as newspaper and magazines in disseminating information, but digital media, which has a virtual presence, could be accessed from any part of the world.   

      

Convenience: Digital media is always convenient to use. With the help of a laptop,i-pad or other hand held device plethora of content could be consumed. 

·         Content can be consumed as well as produced at the same time: with the help of web 2.0 platforms, content can be viewed/consumed as well as produced at the same time. Web 2.0 provides two way communication platforms. Not only does it communicate directly to the end users, but also allow the consumers to share their opinion, feedbacks etc.

·         Consumer Insights: with the help of web based analytics, digital media can give a lot of detailed insights, pertaining to consumer behavior and demographics- consumption pattern, duration, geography etc. One remarkable feature is that, all such valuable data could be obtained at a negligible cost.

 ·         Target Marketing: digital media helps in capturing the target audience.

Disadvantages of Digital Media:

Along with advantages, digital media also has some disadvantages such as 

          

·         Revenue from advertisements is not easy in the digital media. It’s easy to have a web presence/ digital presence, but it is as difficult to generate revenue out of it.Monetization of digital media is a challenge, through out the globe.  

·         Generating revenue always takes a large amount of time. Revenue can follow only, after creating a sizeable customer base. For instance, even Facebook took five years to break even. The revenue from marketing could be generated only after securing huge customer base.  

·         Not everyone is very comfortable with digital media, especially when it comes to money transaction. A large number of individuals are wary of transferring money over the internet. More over the web medium has also been the source of lot of frauds.

·          Consumers expect a lot of free content on the web. When it comes to paying for the content, many individuals are not very willing to pay. They just want stuffs for free.    

DIGITAL MEDIA: global trends

Globally more than 50% of the internet consumption comprises of 5 nations: USA, China, India, Brazil and Russia. As described earlier a lot of creative rearrangements are happening in the media sector, all across the globe. Some of the major global trends in the digital media are as follows (Morgan Stanley, 2009)

·         E-commerce: major products which are purchased online globally are- computer products, electronic items, event tickets, hotel bookings, tour packages, books, music/video etc, toys etc.

·         Consumptions of internet on mobile are catching up fast with consumption on desktop. According to Morgan Stanley report, by 2013-14 more users will be consuming internet via mobile devices, rather than desktop computer.

·         Social Media: social media users are surpassing the regular email users. People refer spending more time on social media rather than on regular emails.

·         Adoption of newer and better telecom services such as 3G will further consolidate the stronghold of mobile medium.

·             

Digital media in Middle East

In contrast to other parts developed world, digital media in MENA region is still not very matured but is surely one of the sectors, which is poised for a high growth in the coming time. As a region, MENA has its own advantages and its own challenges. Presently there are 65 million internet users in the MENA region, which is expected to increase to 80 million by 2012. (AMIR, 2011) Other than global heavyweights such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and regional players such as Kooora, Maktoob etc; the region is also witnessing the arrival of online marketing firms such as Al click, Eastline Marketing etc.         

   

Advantages of Middle East

The Socio Economic structure of the entire Middle East has lot of inherent advantages, which can boost the growth of online media companies in the region. Some of them are (Booz & Company, 2009):

·         A uniform, homogeneous market: the Middle East might have many small nations, across the region but, all share the common Arab heritage and enjoy high degree of commonality across various socio-cultural dimensions. Hence the Middle East could be considered as a homogeneous mixture of around 300 million individuals. The idea of uniformity becomes more apt in case of digital media because; unlike regular media such as print and broadcast which are restricted to national boundaries due to regulatory barriers; online media can have a pan Arab presence.

     

·         High mobile penetration: these days a large amount of digital contents are being viewed with the help of mobile devices. MENA region enjoys a high degree of mobile penetration with states like UAE and Saudi Arabia enjoying a mobile penetration of 200 and 125 percentages.

·         High literacy rate: Many of the MENA states are taking education, high up on their agendas. Some of the MENA states enjoy a high degree of literacy. For instance: collectively the six gulf state enjoys a literacy rate of more than 75 percentages.

·         Several MENA nations are extremely rich: many of the oil rich MENA nations, especially Gulf States are extremely rich and enjoy high per capita GDP. For instance: Qatar, where per capita GDP is around US $ 78,000.  By 2015, Gulf States and Egypt are expected to have 13 million households in middle to high income brackets.

·         Investments in the ICT infra structure: rather than depending on oil MENA nations are realizing the urgency of economic diversification. One thing which is high up on their agenda is ICT infrastructure. All across the MENA huge investments are being made to develop state of the art ICT infra structure.

·         Demographics: the younger generation is more inclined towards the digital media. Somewhere around, 55 percentages of Arab population, is less than 25 years of age, which shows that there is a huge potential for the digital media to flourish in the Arab world.

  Challenges for digital media in Middle East & north africa

Along with advantages, MENA also has lot of challenges, providing hindrances to the growth of digital media in the sector.

·         Low broad band connectivity: it is expected that broadband connectivity will increase in the coming years; but the present penetration of 12 percentages is much lower than other developed parts of the globe. 

   Fig2: broad band penetration in different geographies. Source: Arab Media Outlook 2009-13

·         Dissimilarity in ICT infrastructure across the region: even though the region shares socio cultural heritages, there is a high degree of economic asymmetry across the whole region. There are cash rich small Gulf States; North African bigger states like Egypt and Morocco which are comparatively more integrated with the world economy; developing states like Jordan and Syria with almost no oil and reserve and states like Libya and Algeria with high oil deposits but high population as well. This asymmetry is also reflected in a wide range of economic parameters such as mobile penetration, internet penetration, broad band connectivity, kind of network technology being used etc. For instance, in emerging markets like Syria and Sudan broadband penetration is less than 1 percentage; in Morocco and Jordan it is 12 and 15 percentages respectively where as in rich Gulf States like UAE and Qatar it is 69 and 84 percentages respectively. This inherent heterogeneous nature of the ICT infrastructure across the region makes it difficult for organizations to adopt a single digital marketing strategy. (Arab media outlook 2009-13, 2009)

·         Gap between presence and revenue: any business model does not make any sense, until unless it cannot generate constant stream of revenue. In the MENA companies are finding it tough to en cash their digital presence. For instance: 85 percentages of Arab newspapers have digital presence as well, but digital media constitutes just 2 percentages of their advertising revenue.                       

Fig 3: shows the breakup of digital media revenue (in US $ million) in the MENA region, for 2009.  (Source: Booz & Company)  

Fig 4: percentage wise break up of online advertisements in MENA region. Source: Booz & Company, 2009.

 Fig 5: percentage wise break up of mobile advertisements in MENA region. Source: Booz & Company, 2009.

·         Online shopping activity is abysmally low: according to a research conducted by Neilson (comprising of 1,246 individuals from four countries- UAE, Egypt, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia) less than 1 percentage of individuals prefers engaging themselves in online shopping. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13 , 2009)

·         Monetization of the online content, which is somehow a challenge all across the globe, is quiet challenging in the MENA region. The prevalence of a cash based culture and low penetration of credit & debit card penetration makes it more difficult. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13 , 2009)  

       Internet consumption behavior of MENA users

In order to analyze the prospect of digital media in MENA region, it will be helpful to have a brief overview of internet consumption behavior of people from the region. In order to understand this better, the blog will be taking the help of a research conducted by, Effective Research in conjunction with Spot on PR, in July 2010. The research has been conducted over a base of 2587 individuals, out of which 69 percentages comprised of Egyptians and 20 percentages comprised of individuals from GCC. 

Fig6: shows the common activities on internet in the MENA region. Source: Neilson, the survey comprised of 1,810 individuals from 4 countries- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Lebanon. 

Education level of individuals surveyed:

 Fig7: shows the education level of respondents surveyed, in terms of percentages. Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR.

Place of internet access

Fig8: shows the place of access of internet, for the respondents, in terms of percentages. (Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR, 2010)   

Respondent’s, Usage of Social Media Platform:

Fig9: shows respondent's usage of various social media platforms.(Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR, 2010)  

Respondent’s daily consumption of other  media channels.

Fig10: shows percentage of correspondents consuming various media channels on a daily basis (in case of magazine, weekly figures have been taken). Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR.

Disposition towards Internet Marketers:

Fig11: respondent's disposition towards internet  marketers. Source: Effective Research and Spot on PR. 

Important Conclusions:

Important conclusions, drawn from the report are as follows:

·         Majority (more than two third) of internet users from the region seems to be, graduate or above.

·         Internet is primarily used from home.

·         Facebook seems to be very popular across the region. The tremendous popularity of Facebook is followed by other local brands such as Kooora, Maktoob etc.

·         Internet users from the MENA region simultaneously use a wide range of other media channels as well, such as newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, mobile applications etc 

   Challenges for Digital Media:

·         Less ad spending on digital media: so far digital media contribute a miniscule share of just 2 percentage of overall ad spending in the MENA region. In 2008, the digital advertisement investments per capita in the MENA region was just US $ 2 compared to the global average of US $ 27. (Booz & Company, 2009) 

Fig 12: shows per capita digital ad spend across various countries in 2008. Source: Booz & Company, 2009.   

·         Internet penetration is comparatively low: internet penetration is increasing in the Middle East region at a very fast pace and the present penetration of 28.8 percentages is higher than the global average of 26.6 percentages. Although when compared with other developed parts of the globe; it appears to be very low.

Fig 13: shows internet penetration in various geographical regions (Source: Internet World stats, 2010)

Social media angle

The understanding of digital media in the MENA region will be incomplete without understanding the “Social Media” angle. Social Media is one of the fastest growing segments of media in the MENA. Not only does it make sense for business in present as well as in future; but also plays a pivotal role in socio-political sphere of the region. The best exemplar could be the latest Arab revolution, which started from Egypt & Tunisia and spread across the entire region. Social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter played a major role in the revolution, eventually forcing the incumbent governments to step down. In a wide range of activities such as; creation of popular pages such as “We are all Khalid Said”, meant for addressing the political concerns of the common people; communicating across the user network to stage a mass protest on 25^th January to post revolution analysis and public opinion building on key issues; everywhere social media has been the key player.

Facebook

Facebook or FB is the most popular, social media in the MENA region, very much in line with the general popularity, which it enjoys across the globe. The region has somewhere around 15 million FB users, with GCC countries accounting for some 5 million users (Spot On, 2010) Other than English, other popular versions of FB are French and Arabic.

Fig14: shows the percentage wise break up of FB users in the MENA region. Source: Spot On

The Arabic interface has been added in March, 2009. It helped FB capturing a whole new range of user segment. With a year of its inception, it added 3.5 million users to the existing base. The French version of FB has a total of 3.7 million users and is more popular in francophone countries such as- Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia etc. The top five user communities of FB in the region are- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia and UAE. These five countries, comprise of 70 percentages of FB’s market in MENA region.

Fig 15: percentage wise break up of FB using population of various MENA nations. Source: Spot On

Conclusion

As discussed earlier, the online media/digital media segment in Middle East is in its nascent stage but the future seems to be bright. The following factors will drive/influence growth of digital media in the future:

·         Young Demographics will influence growth: one of the biggest advantages that MENA is having is its young demographic. More than 55 percentage of population is aged less than 25. This young generation will be heavily influencing the growth of digital media in the region.

·         Broad band penetration: broad band penetration, especially in comparatively bigger states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia will drive growth of digital media in the region.

·         Europe could be a role model: though digital media has enough presence in both social as well as economical spheres of the region, the advertisement revenues are still not very high. In this regard Europe of 2000s could be perfect role model, when the advertisements revenue where low there as well. But with the growth of more and broadband and mobile penetration, it got emancipated. With increasing broadband penetration and adoption of better mobile technologies; MENA can undergo the same growth trajectories.

·          Arabic and local Content: in order to digital media (as well as other media sources to an extent) to succeed, one area that needs to be addressed is developing local content. According to survey conducted by Neilson, 62 percentages of respondents prefer browsing the web in Arabic rather than English; but the region has dearth of Arabic/local digital content. (Unlike newspaper, where 90 percentages of content are local in nature). In spite of the fact that international brands like Yahoo and Facebook enjoy a high degree of popularity in the region due to their brand value and 1^st mover’s advantage; the fact cannot be discounted that there is a penchant for local content both on and off the web. Hence in order to succeed in the coming future, it is essential to emphasis on the development of more and more local content. This requires funding, govt. support as well as developing local talent. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009)

·         Creating right cultural environment for web entrepreneurs to succeed: in order to develop the online media sector in Middle East, a possible step could be developing something similar to Silicon Valley. This will help nurturing young talents to develop web based start ups. In the MENA region one possible role model could be Jordan, which is taking similar initiatives. Jordan is transforming itself into a knowledge economy by- generating 6000 ICT graduates every year, attracting venture capital for web based start ups and taking a comparatively tolerant stand on media sector including the blogosphere. (Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009)

·         Nurturing Talent: one of the most essential pillars for developing the digital media in the region could be having the right talent base. Though many of the Arab/ Gulf countries are taking initiatives, but there is further room for improvement. The students from the region need to be trained on a wide range of subjects such as- digital media, gaming, animation etc.           

·         

Reference

1>    Morgan Stanley, 2009, Internet trends report

2>    Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009, simulating local content in Arab Media Industry, p-169

3>    Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, 2009, simulating local content in Arab Media Industry, p-172

4>    AMIR, March 2011, P-3

5>    Booz & Company, 2009, Winning in MENA new media scene

6>    Booz and Company, 2009, Winning in MENA new media scene,  p-17

7>    Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, digital media, p-68

8>    Spot On, 2010, Middle East and North Africa Facebook demographics. 
9>  Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, digital media, p-169 

1>    Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, digital media, p-181 

Egypt VS Turkey: as tourist destinations

In the following blog the author will attempt  doing a comparative analysis of the two biggest tourist destinations from the Mediterranean region, Egypt and Turkey, with the help of qualitative as well as quantitative frameworks. Both Egypt and Turkey are world famous tourist destinations sharing lot of similarities across religious, cultural social and economical parameters.

Profiles as tourist destination

Egypt: Egypt, also known as the cradle of civilization has a very strong and vibrant tourism industry, employing 12% of the work force and receiving around 125 Million tourists every year (Dinar Standard, 2011). It has a wide range of tourist avenues such as Pyramids, Sphinx and other magnificent monuments; exotic desserts, wild life parks and sea beaches; shopping complexes and other life style centers and state of the art golf courses; providing a wide range of activities such as sight seeing, dessert safaris, golf tourism, cultural tourism, sea activities, cruising, adventure sports etc. (Egypt. travel, 2011)

Turkey: Turkey also has a  very rich history and cultural heritage and is  melting pot of various civilizations such as European, Arabic and Central Asian. Like Egypt it also has a wide range of tourist avenues such as; beautiful cities like Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara etc; rugged landscapes, serene and calm sea beaches and coastlines, full of exotic floras and faunas; plethora of heritage sites, museums, monuments and archeological sites etc. The range of activities at Turkey includes site seeing, adventure sports, winter sports, golf, rafting, eco tourism, yachting, night life, cultural tourism, shopping, Turkish bath, cuisines, conventions, wild life adventures etc. (tourismturkey. org, 2011)

Following table  shows the demographic and economic Indicators for 2010 (Euromonitor, 2011):

The following figure compares the GDP growth rate of both, Egypt and Turkey, #

Social Indicators of Egypt and Turkey (Source: UNICEF)

comparison of Egypt and Turkey on some selected social parameters

Tourism industry in Egypt and Turkey

Egypt

Since ancient time Egypt has been a very popular tourist destination, attracting large number of tourists from Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 19th century after Napoleon's invasion,  people once again got interested in Egypt. The new era of tourism in Egypt began in 1989-90, when many of the leading hotels were privatized, airline sector was liberalized and the Egyptian govt. came up with some strong marketing campaigns. Since then the industry has been moving with an accelerating pace, occasionally hit hard by terrorism and political unrest. Last year out of the 125 Million tourists it had received, Russia with 14 % had the highest share, followed by United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Though presently due to the political unrest the tourism industry had been affected, but in the long run it is expected to grow further, owing to expected political stability and transparency as well as more inflow of tourists from emerging economies like China and India.

The following histogram shows the growth of tourism industry since 1989-90, for Egypt

The following figure shows growth of annual revenue from tourism, over the period of   years,

 

The following pie chart shows the percentage of 10 major countries, exporting tourist to Egypt, in the year 2007 (values given in 000s)

 

Source of data: (Information development support center)

 
Egypt is primarily known for cultural tourism. Having large number of Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic monuments and archaeological sites, it’s a paradise for culture tourists coming from various parts of the globe. Though position of cultural tourism is unparalleled, Egypt had also made huge investments in developing various other forms of tourism such as, spa tourism, sports tourism, dessert safaris, beaches tourism, adventure tourism, eco tourism, convention tourism (business tourism) etc. In the recent years, government of Egypt along with the support of International Monetary Fund and other international organizations had made huge investments developing the tourism sector, a sector that constitutes 40 percent of Egypt’s non commodity export and employees more than 2 Million people directly or indirectly.;



Turkey

Thanks to its, rich History, wide range of exotic landscapes, beautiful beaches and strategic position, tourism industry in Turkey had made noticeable growth in past few years, better than many of its European counterparts. Turkey’s tourism sector took a leap during the early 80s. In 1980, Turkey had mere 60, 000 beds and the tourism industry constituted just 0.8% of the GDP. (Mahmut Zortuk, 2009). Presently in 2009 with revenue of around US $ 21 Billion, constitutes 3.4% of the GDP and 20.8% of the export. According World Tourism Organization, Turkey is ranked 7th among the best tourists destinations in the world and holds 9th position in terms of annual revenue from tourism. (Sunday’s Zaman, 2011) Istanbul; the capital of two of the greatest civilizations in the world, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations; along with Antalya are the two important points focal point of Turkish tourism, comprising of 60% of the tourist intake . The city was the 3rd most visited city in Europe as on 2008, and was the cultural capital of Europe in 2010. (Invest in Turkey, 2009)

The following columns shows the growth in inbound tourism over the period of time

Source of the data: Middle East and North Africa report, Istanbul Bulletin, Sunday Zaman, Country studies, Central daylight time

The following figure shows growth of annual revenue from tourism, over the period of   time,

Source of data: Middle East and North Africa report, Istanbul Bulletin, Sunday Zaman, Country studies, Central daylight time

Over the coming years, tourism industry in Turkey is expected to grow further, with around 3.3 Million tourists in 2012. Around 40% of tourists come from, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany and Iran. Major tourist attraction in turkey includes, archaeological sites, monuments, museums, beautiful coastline with 314 beaches, rugged landscapes etc and major forms of tourism includes cultural tourism, winter tourism, beach tourism etc. Other alternative forms of tourism had been developed such as medical tourism, religious tourism and sports tourism. Turkey having 14 golf courses, 20 skies and 40 marinas as of 2008, had also been an emerging sports tourism destination. Similarly it is evolving as a medical tourism destination, with a large number of medical tourists coming from Middle East region.

Comparing Egypt and Turkey on a “Nine Point” Analytical frame work @

The success of a tourist destination depends on a wide range of factors ranging from places to visit, connectivity to political stability and infrastructure etc. In the following part of the blog, both the destinations will be judged on a set of nine parameters, with every parameter having a specific weight age score, depending on the importance of the parameter. Based on the competencies shown under individual parameters, they will be rated from 1 to 5, with 1 being very low to 5 being very high. Finally the individual scores will be multiplied with the weight age score and their sum total over all the nine parameters will be the final score for the individual states.

• Places to visit: the success of any tourist destinations relies heavily on the things it has to offer, whether it has places exciting enough to be adored by tourists, coming from various parts of the world. Under this section, both Egypt and Turkey has enough to offer; while Egypt had some most sought after archaeological sites and monuments, along with beautiful beaches, exotic desserts, spas, golf courses, convention centers Nile cruises etc; Turkey is also rich with archaeological sites, museums, monuments along with beaches, springs, flora and fauna, sports and medical utilities, convention centers, exciting night life etc. Hence both have been rated as 5.

• Infrastructure: includes, hotels, resorts, roads, public transportation, telecommunication, ICT (information and communication technologies), convention centers etc and plays a very important role in the tourism industry by ensuring comfortable and hassle free stay for the tourists. Turkey has around one Million beds, 46 airports, and extensive road networks, Turkey is ranked 55 in the T&T business environment and infrastructure sub index, consisting of ,air transport, ground transport, tourism, ICT, infra structure, tourism infra structure. Turkey lags behind in infrastructure in contrast to, many of its developed counterparts in Western Europe, UAE, USA, Bahrain, Singapore etc. In the given sub index Egypt has a rank of 74. Based on their rankings, a score of 3 and 2 had been given to Turkey and Egypt respectively.

• Safety: is another major concern for the tourists, it has a huge psychological impact in the minds of visiting tourist and a perceived feeling of lack of safety can often result in avoidance of a destinations. Both Egypt and Turkey have their own safety concerns, with the situations presently being more serious in Egypt due to the current political instability. There had been many attacks on tourists by fundamental forces in both Turkey as well as Egypt, resulting in high causalities, there by hitting the tourism business hard. Along with religious fundamentalism, Turkey also struggles hard with Kurdish uprising in the South, which had occasionally targeted tourists. Based on these serious safety concerns a low score of 2 had been decided for Egypt and Turkey, which had been further revised to 1 in case of Egypt, in view of the present revolt, which resulted in one Million tourists leaving the place.

• Cost: Both Egypt and Turkey are comparatively cost effective in comparison to many of its counterparts in Europe. Egypt is one of the low cost tourist destinations where the cost of travelling is 20 % of the United Kingdom. Cairo its largest city has a rank of 224, in terms of cost of living among 276 places in the world. According to an estimation by budgetyourtrip.com; average daily travel in Egypt, which includes accommodation, food, water, local transportation etc could cost around US $ 33.5; souvenirs could cost around US $ 100 and daily travel and cruise trips can cost around US $ 30. In case of Turkey values for the same will be US $, 47, 8 and 55 respectively. Cost of daily travelling can cost US $, 200, 164, 77 and 51 in United Kingdom, USA, Mexico and Thailand respectively. Few tourist destinations cheaper than these two places could be Morocco, India etc. Hence for cost, on a scale of 5 a score of 5 had been given to Egypt where as 4 had been given to a bit costlier Turkey.

• Strategic Location: Turkey is strategically placed between the cross roads of Europe, Middle East and Central Asia. Similarly Egypt, situated in North Africa is at a distance of mere four hours from Europe and is at the door steps of Middle East. For both of them, strategic location have played pivotal role in their tourism industry. In the given parameter a score of 5 had been awarded.

• Marketing: Owing to the fact that tourism plays a very pivotal role in their individual economies, both Egypt and Turkey intend to take strong initiatives in marketing their destinations. Ministry of tourism and culture in Turkey has an ambitious plan of achieving 50 Million tourists and US $ 40 Billion as revenue by 2023, as a result of which it has opened offices all across the world, taking strong marketing initiatives. In spite of this, marketing expenditures are believed to be low in comparison to some of the heavily marketed destinations like Spain, UAE etc. The same holds true for Egypt, though it has its own tourism ministry with a fix budget allocated for marketing, a lot more can be done. In case of both Turkey as well as Egypt handful of nations like Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and some Arab countries constitute the majority of their tourists, indicating lack of diversity in their marketing campaigns. Hence a score of 3 had been given to both the countries.

• Climate: Climate is another factor, deciding the success of a tourist destination, though few adventurous souls might like harsh weather conditions, for most of the leisure tourist it might be a turn off. Egypt has comparatively moderate temperature with warm days and cold nights; during summer temperature fluctuates between 43 degree C during day and 7 degree C in night, whereas during winter, varies between 30 degree C to 18 degree C. The warm weather in Egypt is considered to be very refreshing for tourists. In comparison to Egypt, Turkey has a varied climate with coastal areas having typical Mediterranean climate with hot summers and mild, wet winters and East of the country having snowy winters and warm summers, often used for winter tourism. Istanbul has a cooler version of Mediterranean climate where as Antalya; home to some of the best beaches and resorts has a much warm coastal temperature. On account of their favorable weather conditions a rating of 4 had been given to them.

• Social factors: People from both Egypt and Turkey are known for their warm and loving attitude towards the tourists. In Egypt a large number of people speak and understand languages like English, French, and German etc. Similarly in Turkey English is taught as second language in most of the govt. sponsored schools, other than English lot of people do speak and understand German, Russian, Arabic etc. In terms of other social factors affecting tourism industry, directly or indirectly such as literacy rate, higher education, telephone penetration, internet penetration etc Turkey has a clear cut edge on Egypt, hence 4 had been awarded to Turkey and 3 for Egypt.

• Legal factors: Factors such as the visa procedures and the legal system of a country are also important for the tourism industry of a nation. Both Turkey and Egypt have easy visa obtaining procedure and legal frame works very much in line with the Western world, hence there is not much of a trouble for the tourists. A score of 4 had been given to both of them.

The following table followed by graph shows the score of both the countries across the nine parameters:

                       

      
            Egypt : sub total 157

           Turkey : sub total 167

Though both Egypt and Turkey had emerged as great tourist destinations in the past few decades, with both having their unique selling proposition; one an ancient land with some of the most magnificent monuments and archaeological sites while other, a moderate and prosperous Islamic society also blessed with a rich cultural and historical heritage and catching up fast with its other developed counterparts, both in terms of outlook as well as approach. If data speaks something, then the comparison between Egypt and Turkey goes in favor of the later. Not only does Turkey has a bigger tourism industry than Egypt and has better figures under various social and economic indicators but also has 10 point higher score under the nine point analytical framework. The difference in the scores can be explained with the help of underlying difference in the structure of Turkey and Egypt. Both the nations do have their own share similarities, since both, are Moderate Islamic societies having very rich heritage, are making headways in the tourism industry by investing in various new and alternate forms of tourism and are moderately cost destinations providing a value based proposition to the tourists but along with this similarity there are some gross dissimilarities also. While Egypt had just started liberalizing its market, investing in social infra structure and post revolution is attempting a transition into a liberal and transparent democratic system; Turkey on account of its inclinations towards the European world had made huge strides in investing in social and physical infra structure, is a moderate, transparent and secular democracy and has implemented economic reforms much before. Turkey itself has huge ambitions of achieving 50 Million tourists by 2023 and is yet to achieve its full potential as a tourist destination, yet it can be an inspiration for the newly evolving Egypt. Turkey, a prosperous and modern society with strong Islamic roots can be a ‘great model state’ for a new Egypt.

The Turkish model can not only be beneficial for the tourism industry in Egypt, but can also be an inspiration for various parts of its, economic, social and political future.

# for the year 2011 for Egypt, the estimated GDP growth of 5.5% has been revised to 3.5%, due to the current political turmoil.



@ This nine point frame work had been made with the help of a seminar session attended by the author at Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom. The seminar was attended by students from various countries across the globe such as, India, Germany, China, Pakistan, Oman, Libya, United Kingdom etc



Reference:

1> Dinar Standard, 2011, Egypt revolution: facts and updates, available at < http://dinarstandard.com/challenges/egypt-crisis-business-facts-updates/>

2> Egypt. travel, 2011, home page, available at < http://www.egypt.travel/?flashinstalled=2>

3> Tourismturkey.org, 2011, home page, available at http://www.tourismturkey.org/

4> Euromonitor, 2011, Reference books, available at http://www.euromonitor.com/turkey/country-factfile

5> Mahmut Zortuk, 2009, Economic impact of tourism on Turkey’s economy: evidence from cointegration tests, p- 231-232

6> Sunday’s Zaman, 2011, tourism industry making headway in Turkey

7> Invest in Turkey, sectors, tourism