“Expectations for Egyptian tourism in 2022 are not higher than last year,” Deputy Tourism Minister Ghada Shalaby told Bloomberg, while declining to provide estimates on arrivals or total tourism receipts.
Russian and Ukrainian arrivals made up some 30-40% of all visitors to Egypt before the war broke out in late February, according to the business newswire and were fixtures of the Red Sea package tour trade.
Their loss will challenge the post-pandemic recovery in our tourism industry, which saw revenues surpass USD 13 bn in 2021.
The resumption of flights between Moscow and Cairo after a brief war-induced pause, as well as limited flights running between Russia and Red Sea resorts, “will help in regaining some of what we lost,” Shalaby said. New international routes to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh could also give tourism revenues a boost, she added. The first direct flight between Tel Aviv and Sharm El Sheikh took off this week after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett struck and agreement in March.
