Tourism warms up

Tourism warms up

Egypt has started to catch its breath after the slump that befell its tourism sector during the restrictions put in place to halt the spread of the coronavirus, with tourist flights returning to the Red Sea resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada last week.

However, it is still too early to determine whether this vital sector for Egypt's economy will see a complete revival by the end of the year or in 2021 or when a coronavirus vaccine or effective treatment is developed.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused global economic paralysis, particularly in tourism, said Sameh Saad, head of the Misr Travel Company, a tour-operator in Egypt. Even with Egypt opening up its air space to receive flights from across the world, changing flight regulations makes it difficult for the sector to stabilise.

"Egypt's cultural tourism was the hardest hit. And European tourists, first on the list of travellers to Egypt, have also been hit economically due to the lockdowns in their countries that affected their financial ability to travel,“ Saad said.

Although the Eastern European countries have given the green light to their citizens to travel to Egypt, some countries in Western Europe are still placing Egypt on their