Results of Sinai disaster: people are afraid to fly

During the first working day after the Russian Airbus A321 aircraft crash the 'Kogalymavia' airline has had very few bookings to Egypt, the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Turina said.

According to travel agents, people who planned tours in the near future are, if not immediately abandoning the previously scheduled tours, then preferring to wait and see the attitude.

However, there have been almost no refusals from tours that have already been bought. The tour operators understand that a negative reaction of Russians to Egypt will be very active, but short-lived, and estimated the period of falling demand for one of the best-selling tourist destinations at two to three weeks.

Professor of the Department of Business Process Management in Production and Service of RANEPA, Galina Dekhtyar, told Vestnik Kavkaza that today "there is no mass refusal from tours in general, but a decline in demand is obvious." "So, tourists will expect an answer to the question, what was the cause of the disaster, and what is the likelihood of a recurrence?" she said.

According to the expert, the tragedy may cause a reluctance on the part of Russians to fly or choose to use the train." "It's not about Egypt. We are talking about any direction. Tourists are afraid of the insecurity of air travel. Although the fact that the airplane was used in Africa and Middle Eastern countries could also play a role," Dekhtyar noted.

"Now the industry says that in the first place we should consider the cancellation of tours due to the disaster and alternative modes of transport already after reservation. The point is that the aviation industry should give a clear account to all citizens of the Russian Federation on the security of flights," the expert said.

"The question is not the country, but the airlines and aircraft's state. I had a situation when I was flying and we were forced to wait for 8 hours, they said that there was something wrong with the plane. Now I realize that it was the right thing - to wait. Because the security of the flight is the most important thing," Galina Dekhtyar stressed.

Irina Turina, in her turn, commenting specially for Vestnik Kavkaza on the impact of Saturday's tragedy in the tourism industry, said that "in fact, there are not as many cancellations as we expected." "We are now much more concerned that sales have almost stopped. That is, people are afraid to fly. Everyone is waiting for the cause of the tragedy, they want to make sure that it was not a terrorist attack," she said.

"Generally, after any fatal accidents there is demand stagnation, which usually continues for two weeks. But only if it is known that the cause of the crash was a technical problem. But now the version of a terrorist attack is actively being discussed, so it is an unpredictable thing," the press secretary of the Russian Union of the Travel Industry added.