We’re excited to announce that we are continuing this longstanding commitment to Egypt and have purchased a majority stake in our Cairo-based ground operator.
This joint venture with the management team is an investment into the future of Egypt and comes on the back of our long term commitment to Egyptian tourism. Unlike many other operators, we have maintained our presence in Egypt since the beginning, and have continued to work with and support the team there during the lean years after the 2011 Arab Spring revolution.
At the time of the revolution, Dennis was the only Australian travel manager to fly into Egypt and stayed there for a week to assist passengers and help our local team. Once tours recommenced 6 weeks later, Marion was based in Egypt for 3 weeks and personally met and travelled with every single group.
As a result of this shared experience with our Egyptian team we have been passionate supporters of them ever since – ensuring all staff continued to be paid in full even when there were no tourists and working hard in Australia to rebuild customer confidence in travelling to Egypt.
“Now that Egypt is back, and booking numbers are above pre-revolution peaks, it is the perfect time to realise our dream and officially launch the joint venture” says our CEO, Dennis Bunnik.
This joint venture means the team has been able to move from a shared office space into a bright, new office in an up-market leafy Cairo suburb. The official opening of the new office was attended by the Bunnik family, Marion, Frank, Dennis and Sacha, along with many local hoteliers and Nile cruise operator suppliers. It was an opportunity to celebrate old friendships and 14 years of working together showing Australians the best of Egypt.
It was also a double celebration, with Marion and husband Frank celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that evening.
