CAIRO -

On October 31, 2015, a Russian Airbus 321 crashed in the Sinai desert, 22 minutes after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh airport, and was flying at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9450 meters) when it disappeared from radar screens, carrying a plane. Aboard 224 people, mostly Russian tourists, all were killed.

Today, 6 years after the tragic accident, Egyptians - especially those working in the tourism sector - hope that the tourism movement between Egypt and Russia will recover after years of interruption, but security concerns are still present, especially after the false alarm incident of the EgyptAir plane with the presence of a bomb last week.

Russian plane accident

The Russian plane accident represented a fatal blow to tourism in Egypt, due to the questions it raised about the security capabilities of protecting tourists and civil aircraft at Egyptian airports.

Amidst speculation and rumors about the causes of the crash, Russian officials said the day after the plane crashed that it had crashed in the air. The Islamic State in the Sinai Province, which claimed responsibility for downing the plane, explained that this was in retaliation for the Russian air strikes in Syria.

Moscow soon confirmed that the plane accident was caused by the planting of a bomb by ISIS on the plane, and the head of the Russian Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, stated on November 17, 2015 that a terrorist act was behind the accident, and that remnants of explosive materials were found in the plane. The wreckage of the plane, which Egypt initially rejected, stressing that there was no evidence of that.

In the wake of the accident, Moscow decided to stop all its civil flights to Egypt, and British airlines banned their flights to Sharm el-Sheikh based on the recommendations of the British government, which inflicted heavy losses on the Egyptian tourism sector for years.

Egypt acknowledges the incident

In February 2016, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi admitted, for the first time, that the incident of the downing of the Russian plane was a terrorist act aimed at harming Egyptian tourism and relations between Egypt and Russia.

In a speech on Egyptian television, Sisi said, "Is terrorism over? No, it has not ended, but it will end if we unite. The one who shot down the Russian plane, what was his intention? His goal was to hit tourism and damage relations with Russia," adding that the goal of the terrorist act was to isolate Egypt from the scientist.

Tourism is back

The direct movement of Russian tourists between Russia and Egypt's most important tourist resorts, Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, has since stopped, until the situation appeared on the horizon to return to what it was on July 8, when the Russian President signed a decree to abolish the ban on flights to Egyptian tourist resorts.

During the past years, Russian tourists did not stop coming to Egypt through indirect flights, and the Russians insisted on visiting the Egyptian tourist resorts that are relatively cheap compared to Europe, but the resumption of direct flights between Russia and Egyptian resorts may represent a significant increase in the tourism movement, at a time when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced The Russian Federation expressed an "initial understanding" about compensation provided by Egypt to the families of the victims of the terrorist operation.

England also raised Egypt from the red list of Corona countries this October, which contributes to the strong return of English tourists to their favorite resorts of Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, as the English market ranked second to fourth among the ten markets exporting Egyptian tourism during the period from 2010 to 2015 .

domestic tourism

Tourism contributes about 15% of Egypt's national product, and several related industries also benefit and create new job opportunities.

A survey conducted by the Information Center of the Egyptian Prime Ministry among hotel owners indicated that domestic tourism still constitutes the largest percentage of occupancy in hotels last August, as Egyptians accounted for most of the hotels and resorts occupancy, while the percentage of foreign guests was 19%. The Arabs are 3.9%, and the Germans and then the Ukrainians come at the forefront of tourists.

Winter hopes

But the matter may change in the winter season, as experts expect that the number of Russian tourist trips will gradually increase, reaching its peak in the Russian tourism season next winter, with Russians representing about a quarter of tourists to Egypt.

In press statements, tourism expert Gaber Moussa said that Russian tourism is the largest of all incoming tourism, and constitutes a pillar for developing relations between Egypt and Russia.

Moussa expected that Russian tourism in Egypt would witness an "unprecedented boom in the coming years," stressing that all conditions are favorable to achieving this boom.

While other experts doubt that Russian tourism will return to its full capacity than it was before the crash of the Russian plane, when at that time, transit flights from Russia to European countries to Egypt were the least expensive.

Economist Hani Aboul Fotouh expected that Russia's announcement of organizing new flights to Egypt represents a breakthrough in the Russian tourism crisis, but it will not be as strong, because the crisis's breakthrough is linked to the easing of travel restrictions in general due to the Corona pandemic.

brief history

The events that followed the January 25, 2011 revolution affected the tourism movement. In 2010, Egypt received more than 14.7 million tourists, before the number declined to 9.8 million in 2011, according to official figures published by the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers and the Central Statistics Authority.

During 2012, the number of tourists reached 11.5 million, despite the security turmoil and demonstrations in the streets, but the continuation of turbulent political events affected tourism in the following year, so the number of tourists decreased to 9.5 million in 2013, before rising a little during 2014 to 9.9 million tourists In 2015, about 9.3 million tourists flocked, to decrease again in 2016 to 5.3 million after the Russian plane accident.

In 2016, the Egyptian government said that tourism revenues have declined by about $1.3 billion since the crash of the Russian plane, and more than 40 hotels have been closed in the resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada after the departure of Russian and British tourists.

The tourism movement rebounded in 2017, with the arrival of 8.2 million tourists, who increased to about 11.3 million in 2018, then the number of tourists reached 13.1 million in 2019, achieving a great recovery, approaching the situation before the January revolution, and the tourism sector was soon affected by the Corona pandemic, which reduced The number of tourists reached about 3.5 million only, due to the impact on air traffic around the world and the suspension of international flights at Egyptian airports in March 2020.

In August 2021, the Egyptian government announced the return of flights between Egypt and Russia with 5 weekly flights, gradually increasing based on the results of the Russian delegation’s visit to Egypt to assess the epidemiological situation, and Russian committees monitor security and safety procedures at Egyptian airports.

false alarm

It does not seem that Cairo has fully recovered from the fears of terrorist threats to planes between Egypt and Russia. A few days ago, an Egyptian plane belonging to EgyptAir, which was heading to Moscow, returned to Cairo minutes after taking off due to a false alarm.

EgyptAir's statement published on October 27 last year on the company's Facebook page said that the plane turned back "due to the presence of an anonymous threatening message on one of the plane's seats", 22 minutes after take-off and the passengers arrived safely at Cairo Airport.