Cracking the code

Egypt's North Coast still has a demand problem it can't fully serve — a new Dubai-based travel agency thinks it has found the workaround. Escape Code, an inbound-only agency founded barely a year ago, is building a business on a simple observation: the Gulf appetite for Sahel is now enormous, but the destination itself remains stubbornly hard to book. The founders' bet is that addressing the bottleneck is where the value sits.

The three founders don’t come from a tourism background. Escape Code was started by Sara Gamay, Rabia El Abyad, and Dina El Mofty — friends before they were business partners, and, tellingly, outsiders to the travel trade. Gamay is a corporate lawyer who also runs a UK-based health-and-wellness company; El Abyad's background spans corporate work and medical concierge, bringing patients into Egypt; El Mofty came up through the entrepreneurial scene at INJAZ before moving into wellness retreats. Gamay frames the lack of industry pedigree as an asset: "We know we want to put things together in a different way." Two of the three are based in Dubai, with El Mofty in Egypt—a footprint that maps neatly onto the GCC-to-Egypt corridor they are trying to own.

The name is the thesis. Escape Code reflects Gamay's conviction that Egypt—and Sahel in particular—requires a code to unlock. "It's the best escape if you have the code." The pitch targets a clientele that keeps telling the founders they tried Egypt and left underwhelmed, unsure of where to look or whom to trust. The answer is hand-holding at the high end: bespoke itineraries and access to vetted operators — from the best dahabiyas on the Nile to trusted local operators who run trips on the ground—without pushing any single asset or service. "We're agnostic. We just want it to be the best," Gamay tells us.

Why Sahel is the hardest code to crack in the catalogue. There has been increasing demand for Sahel vacations in the GCC partially as a result of influencers on social media posting snaps and videos of lavish parties, lush gardens and luxurious homes. The obvious choice for GCC visitors is Emaar’s Marassi with its familiar Dubai-like comfort and aesthetic but there are those who want something more distinctly Egyptian. The founders initially considered building the entire company around Sahel, then confronted its structural friction.

Rentals still assume month-long commitments at South-of-France pricing, often for hit-and-miss quality. A handful of hotels on the prime stretch between Diplo and Hacienda are near-impossible to book and—with demand this high—have no incentive to allocate rooms to a newcomer bringing "a couple of Dubai people." Transport is haphazard, concierge coverage thin, and much of the inventory still runs through the local bedouin broker managing individual chalets. A professional property-management layer, Gamay notes, simply doesn't exist at scale—a real opportunity, but not the one Escape Code wants or is equipped to deliver.

So they narrowed the play and productized the entry point. For this summer, Escape Code has launched a starter Sahel package built around a three-night stay at a five-star hotel in Almaza Bay, which Gamay calls the most guaranteed, well-defined option on the coast with amenities and hotels that are easy for tourists to navigate. It bundles return airport transfers from El Alamein International Airport with access to a VIP concierge service that secures reservations at Sahel's most sought-after beach clubs, restaurants, and nightlife venues. “This is a layer that really matters because those slots are so hard to come by,” says Gamay. Pricing starts from USD 3-4.5 k per night.

The bespoke tier is the real business. Escape Code's core offering remains custom-built Sahel itineraries—and inbound Egypt trips more broadly—with guests choosing their own dates while the agency assembles accommodation, transport, and bookings around them. Throughout, the founders protect what clients actually want: the distinctly Egyptian layer, Amr Diab and Galambo, not another interchangeable European DJ set. "They can go to the South of France if they want. They're choosing to go" for the Arabic-speaking, unmistakably Egyptian experience.

The bigger prize is the developers. With Ras El Hekma and the incoming Qatari-backed Alam Al Roum reshaping perceptions, Escape Code is fielding a growing stream of inquiries from Egyptian developers seeking introductions to Gulf buyers who, the founders stress, won't purchase until they've physically fallen for Sahel first. That links the agency's two revenue layers: tourism drives trust, and trust drives sales. If Sahel becomes, in Gamay's phrase, “the summer palace for the GCC,” everyone stands to benefit. “With the opening of the GEM and the seasonal interest in the North Coast, Egypt is definitely having a moment but we are still nowhere near where we should be in terms of UAE visitors for a destination that is just three hours away.”