Egypt discusses Russian tourism at Moscow tourism fair

CAIRO – 17 March 2018: Egypt’s participation in the 25th Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (MITT) reflects the keenness of Russian tourists to visit Egypt despite the travel ban, Chairman of Egypt's Tourism Authority Amr El-Ezaby said.

He said that Russian tourists visiting Egypt increased in 2017, compared to 2016, adding that the participation in the exhibition coincided with the announcement of the first flight between Moscow and Cairo after lifting the ban, slated for April.

On the sidelines of the exhibition, Ezaby, along with other officials, have met with Russian tour operators to discuss programs and suggestions for Russian tourism in the coming season, according to a statement from the Tourism Ministry.

Ezaby said that that the meetings stressed on the importance of resuming flights between Egypt and Russia and discussed promoting Egyptian cultural and religious tourism in Russia, instead of relying solely on beach tourism.

Meetings have also been held with tour operators operating in Kazakhstan to discuss boosting tourism from this promising market .

MITT is the largest B2B travel event in Russia, attracting representatives of the tourism industry from Russia and other regions of the world.

In 2017, 23,047 travel industry professionals visited MITT, including representatives of tour operators, travel agents, airlines, transport companies, hotels and IT companies, according to the exhibition’s website.

This year’s exhibition took place from March 13-15.

Russia has banned all flights to Egypt following the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai in late 2015.

However an agreement signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in January approving the resumption of air traffic between Russia and Cairo, should see flights between both states resuming soon.

Egypt has also participated in the recently-held TB Berlin, the world's largest tourism trade fair, with expectations of a tourism boom in the coming period.

Egypt’s tourism revenues jumped 211.8 per cent year-on-year to $5.3 billion in the first nine months of 2017, compared to $1.7 billion the year before.

The number of tourists who visited Egypt in that time jumped 55.3 per cent to 5.9 million, with European visitors reaching 3.2 million, an 85 percent increase from the previous year.

Despite the pickup in tourism recently, the numbers are still below the peak level of 2010 when 14 million tourists visited the country, generating $12.5 billion in revenues.