Placing further strain on Egypt’s ailing tourism industry, the deputy head of Russia’s Federal Agency for tourism announced that both Turkey and Egypt will “most likely not be reopened” for Russian tourists in 2016. According to Roman Skory, who was quoted by Russian news agency TASS, the latest events in Egypt have cemented Russia’s concern about the safety of tourists. “By way of example, Britain and a number of European countries do not rush to resume flights to Egypt either. Safety is the key issue, the number one problem,” said Skory. The Russian official’s statement comes less than a week after Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) found that the number of tourists visiting Egypt declined by 45.9 percent in February 2016 compared to the same time in 2015. According to CAPMAS, Egypt’s tourism industry, a vital source of foreign currency, has been hit hard since a Russian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. The plane was heading from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg in Russia. The number of tourists dropped from 640,200 in February 2015 to…
Egypt Will ‘Most Likely’ Remain Closed for Russian Tourists in 2016: Russian Official
April 10, 2016
