Following a five-year halt of direct flights between Egyptian tourist hot-spot Luxor and Japan, direct flights are now recommencing with the first batch of Japanese tourists landing in Luxor on Saturday evening, the Cairo Post reports. The 230 tourists, who took off from Japan’s Kansai Airport located near Osaka, are scheduled to visit Luxor’s archaeological sites and other locations of interest for foreigners during their three-day visit. Luxor airport will receive weekly flights from Japan during one month, with that number doubling in October to two flights a week, according to the head of public relations at Luxor Airport Bekhit Khairi. Direct flights between Japan and Egypt were halted following the 2011 uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak and caused widespread instability in the country. Egypt’s tourism industry, a vital source of foreign currency and a cornerstone of the economy, is still struggling from the 2011 unrest that scared away tourists and foreign investors. Since then, a number of other incidents have worsened the state of tourism in the country. In October last year, a Russian passenger plane crashed over the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on-board. An…
