Egypt intends to double Russian tourist flow by 2025

In January-August, Egypt recorded an increase of the number of arrivals of Russians by 62% compared to last year and expects that by the end of 2023, up to 1,5 million tourists from Russia will visit the country. This was announced by Egypt's Minister of Tourism Ahmed Issa. He also announced the country’s plans for the Russian tourist flow until 2025 and spoke about demand trends.

“Currently, the share of the Russian market in the total number of foreign tourist arrivals to Egypt is 9%. This is the second place in the overall tourist flow after Germany. Taking into account the significant expansion of transportation volumes, we predict a successful winter season. We expect to receive 1,45 – 1,5 million Russian tourists by the end of 2023, the absolute majority of which will be clients of tour operators,” said Ahmed Issa.

Based on the results of the past 8 months, Egypt recorded an increase by 34% of volume of air transportation between Russian cities and resorts on the Red Sea compared to the same period last year (while the number of tourists increased by 62%). Winter transportation in terms of the number of seats on flights will be increased by 30%, he noted.

According to Egypt's Minister of Tourism, the country will continue to rely on tour operators to attract tourists from Russia.

The minister said that now 80% of tourists from European markets come to Egypt through tour operators; in Russia this share is higher, especially recently, amid problems with payments by Russian cards.

According to him, the program of subsidizing Russian airlines and tour operators for delivering tourists to Egypt continues to operate. And over the past 8 months, about 2 000 flights from Russia were involved in the subsidy program, which is 20% more than last year.

As Ahmet Issa said, he is confident that in 2025 Egypt can host 3 million Russian tourists per year on vacation if there are enough seats on flights from the Russian Federation.