Return to Egypt

October is not always so warm and blissful. And the winter, no matter how good it may be in Russia, will still be cold and slushy, with early dark evenings and disgusting longing at the office window.

And somewhere there are beautiful lands - they will never become our loved ones, but we need them from time to time to warm up and just to rest. Because everyone living in Russia needs to rest from time to time, even if he doesn’t work, even if he doesn’t get tired.

Now it is quite fashionable, honorable and prestigious to allow yourself the Crimea. But approximately since Crimea is prestigious to afford, Egypt has become impossible to afford.

Let me remind you that in November 2015, charter flights between Russian cities and the main Egyptian resorts, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, were suspended. This happened after the explosion on board the aircraft flying from Egypt to St. Petersburg. The incident was qualified as a terrorist act, and all charter flights were canceled indefinitely, citing the inability of the Egyptian aviation authorities to provide the necessary security measures at Egyptian airports.

And now, it seems, the Egyptian authorities to some extent tightened the safety of air transport.

At least, Vladimir Putin said so after a conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Now there is hope that Russian tourists will return to Egypt.

This country is not an easy one and not even for tourism is suitable for everyone.

She made a depressing impression on me: bad alcohol, obsessive merchants, the constant need to bargain even for a pack of cigarettes, frankly dangerous taxis, too much sun and sand.

But it is all individually. I generally liked most in Murmansk and Solovki.

And for others (I suspect that for many, for hundreds of thousands of people), all this, on the contrary, is a virtue.

A lot of alcohol? Good! Albeit low-quality, but not worse than vodka for 200 rubles! Are people around sociable? Fine! There is someone to talk to, to train their skills in how-doo-wu-doo, to laugh at their attempts to distort Russian words in order to please the tourist.

Need to bargain? Wonderful! You can save!

In general, we must admit that Egypt is a beautiful country for recreation.

There is a sea there, and it is almost always warm.

For the Russian person, the sea is still exotic. Yes, we have our own seas more than any other country. There are the Laptev Sea and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. But people do not always live with us along the coast. First of all, because living along the Laptev Sea is not very convenient. Cold and wet.

Cold and damp - this is generally such a general feeling of the climate in Russia. I repeat: you don’t see that it’s sunny in the second half of October in Moscow. This is a natural anomaly. It would be good for her to consolidate forever, to become the norm. But it is unlikely.

A Russian man, half a year, leaving the house, freezes, wraps children in scarves, wets his feet in puddles and slush, and suffers from an acute lack of vitamin D, which is known to be produced only in sunlight.

And in the closet of a Russian man there are colorful long swimming trunks with palm trees and parrots, a short-sleeved shirt, maybe a ridiculous hat. You can wear it all three times a year. Because it is cold, then work, then in the country cottage, then sick, then no mood, then in general: "Well, what am I going to be here in these swimming trunks?"

But you can buy an inexpensive last minute ticket, put a hat on the airport and in the duty-free shop to exchange large dollar bills to give Egyptian personnel tips, increasing exponentially the Egyptian loyalty and their love for the Russian tourist.

Egypt has long been such a door to a completely different reality, and this door could go out for a week for three hundred dollars per person.

For the money that almost everyone can save, earn, borrow, in the end, it was possible to lead a very cinematic way of life for a week: in the morning drinking cocktails under an umbrella, lying by the warm sea or, at worst, by the pool, You can have a huge selection of hot dishes and cold snacks a day, so what’s there - you can not even drag your luggage to your room on arrival. Gave a dollar - and you go light, and the suitcase drags the porter! Receptionist! After all, twenty years ago they would have told me that I would carry a baggage clerk, I would not have believed it, I laughed. And now: yes, clerk, nothing special.

For the Egyptians, the return of the Russian tourist is also an important event of the last three years.

Until 2015, Egypt was visited by 7.5 million tourists annually. Three million of these seven and a half came from Russia. Russian tourists in total left in Egypt two and a half billion dollars a year. This is serious money for a North African country.

Tourism is a huge sector of the Egyptian economy. And, as you can see, more than a third of this sector was filled by Russia.

Of course, vacationers from other countries did not drive less, but the absence of Russians led to the restructuring of the entire industry.

Look at the coast of Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh on satellite maps: these are thousands of hotels standing in a row. In all people work, all require maintenance, maintenance of infrastructure, maintenance, logistics support.

Now imagine that all this was 35-40% less.

This does not mean that a hotel will now be filled with only 60%, which means that one of the two hotels will have to be closed. More precisely, it was already necessary.

But it is nothing. Of course, it will take time to restore the flow from Russia. But the main thing is the will and the opportunity to implement this will.

Going to the summer in February for the whole family for clear and tangible money is great.

And the Russians will appreciate it.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.