Report: European tourism in Hurghada

 

CAIRO – 25 August 2020: The first European flight coming from Poland landed inHurghada International Airport, carrying 142 passengers. This flight is the first European flight that reaches the Red Sea after the air traffic stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

On August 22, two flights from Poland arrived at MarsaAlam International Airport, with two flights arriving weekly in Hurghada and MarsaAlam.

 

Abul-Hajjajal-Ammari, a tourism expert, said that tourism workers were happy with the arrival of the first Polish trips, stressing that with the arrival of the Poles, there are great possibilities for the arrival of the Czechs and Germans before mid-September.

 

Ammari added that MarsaAlam hotels were prepared to receive two flights coming from Poland on Saturday, stressing that the tourist season is very promising.He clarifiedthat German citizens would pressure their governments to resume tourist trips to Egypt following the footsteps ofEuropean countries like Poland.

 

For his part, a source at Hurghada International Airport revealed that the English airline EasyJet would operate the first threeflights to Hurghada International Airport after the suspension of air traffic due to the pandemic at the beginning of September 2020.

 

The source added that EasyJet flights are scheduled to dispatch its flights on September 3, with each flight carrying about 160 British tourists.

 

The source noted that, upon theirarrival at the beginning of September, British touristswill be among the first European touriststo arrive at Hurghada International Airport since the Egyptian government announced opening theairports.

 

Hurghada International Airport received, on August 20, the first tourist flights coming from the State of Moldova, carrying 180 passengers. The precautionary measures against COVID-19 were appliedby the airport authorities with the passengersbefore they left to various hotels.

 

For his part, Ihab Shukri, director of the tourism company receiving the flight, said that a weekly flight is scheduled to arrive from Moldova as a first stage, as contracts have been signed with a company in Moldova to support the Moldovan market in the Red Sea Governorate after an absence of years.

 

Shukri said that the trips of the Moldova - Hurghada route will continue until the end of the season in November 2020, and the number of trips will be gradually increased during the season.

 

Shukri added that this came within the framework of tourism development and the opening of modern markets to support tourism to the Red Sea Governorate.

 

Egypt recorded 138 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the total case tally to 97,478 since the outbreak began in February.

The death toll has reached 5,280 with 18 new fatalities recorded on Monday, the health ministry said.

The ministry added that 890 patients had been discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 66,817.

Egypt has been recording daily infections tallies of less than a thousand new cases consistently since 9 July.The daily toll dropped below the 200-case threshold from 2 to 21 August.

The lowest daily tally of infections in four months was recorded on Saturday, with only 89 new cases. Up to 103 new infections were recorded In the following day.