(3 minutes read)
· After 18 months of travel restrictions, tourism seems to be back in Egypt. A clutch of tourists of have landed in the country to enjoy its ancient beauty of tombs and mummies
· According to official reports, in 2020, there was a fall of 55% in tourist arrivals in Egypt. Tourism contributes 9 percent of GDP of the country
· The government mandated that the vaccination of the tourism workers in the South Sinai and the Red Sea governorates. These are top tourist attractions
After 18 months of travel restrictions, tourism seems to be back in Egypt. A clutch of tourists of have landed in the country to enjoy its ancient beauty of tombs and mummies. According to official reports, in 2020, there was a fall of 55% in tourist arrivals in Egypt. Tourism contributes 9 percent of GDP of the country.
Since the beginning of 2021, authorities are betting on arrival of more tourists. The government mandated that the vaccination of the tourism workers in the South Sinai and the Red Sea governorates. These are top tourist attractions. About 2 million people were given the vaccine in the country’s most visited resorts. The government has relaxed the condition for visiting the country. A single negative PCR test upon arrival has been requested since July 2020.
There has been relatively better occupancy in hotels adjoining pyramids or the Egyptian Museum. The visiting tourists are both from the country and from external sources. , Egypt is nowadays receiving a large number of Russian tourists. These tourists tourists are visiting Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada and also Marsa Alam. Since the beginning of 2021, Egypt has welcomed 300,000 tourists every month. By April, this figure increased to half a million a month, around. This gives a lot of hopes for the Egyptian government that the sector may bounce back sooner than expected.
Importantly, in early August, Russia commenced flights to Egyptian Red Sea resorts. This was after a ban that lasted for almost six years. Moscow had banned direct flights to Egypt after the 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner shortly after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. That took lives of 224 people, who were on board.
