Egyptian resorts lose $766mn since Russian plane crash

By Hasnaa al-Masry

CAIRO

Egypt’s Red Sea resorts have incurred losses of 6 billion pounds ($766 million) since the crash of a Russian passenger plane in October, an Egyptian official said Thursday.

“The Red Sea resorts of Sharm-el-Sheikh and Hurghada have lost 6 billion pounds in the past three months,” South Sinai governor Khaled Fouda told an investment forum in Sharm-el-Sheikh.

A Russian Airbus A321 aircraft crashed on Oct. 31 shortly after taking off from Sharm-el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.

Russia has said that terrorism was behind the plane tragedy, but Egypt says that an investigation into the incident has not yet decided the causes of the crash.

Following the crash, Russia and several European countries suspended flights to Sharm-el-Sheikh, dealing a heavy blow to Egypt’s tourism industry.

Fouda estimated the losses of the Red Sea resorts at 2 billion pounds ($225 million) per month.

Egypt's Tourism Ministry has said that the country's tourism receipts dropped by 15 percent in 2015, registering only $6.1 billion, down from $7.4 billion in 2014.

Egypt's Red Sea resorts are a popular destination among tourists from Russia and Europe.

Earlier this week, Speaker of the Russian Duma (parliament) Sergey Naryshkin said that flights between Russia and Egypt will be resumed soon.

"We really discussed in detail issues of resuming the flow of Russian tourists to Egyptian resorts, and I am convinced that we will be able to solve these tasks soon," he said during a visit to Egypt.

Russia had been the largest inbound market in 2014 for Egyptian tourism, followed by Britain. Russia was also the fastest growing market for Egyptian tourism in 2014, according to statistics from the London-based consultancy Euromonitor.

The tourism industry accounted for nearly 13 percent of Egypt’s gross domestic product in 2014, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Travel and tourism also provided nearly 12 percent of Egypt’s jobs in 2014.