Last Sunday Egyptian special forces shot dead Mexican tourists by mistake, getting them mixed up with terrorists during a special operation in the Western Desert. The tourists entered a closed zone with no admittance; however, news about their deaths makes us think about the safety of resorts in Egypt.
The Egyptian authorities state that they guarantee the absolute safety of tourists who arrive to spend their vacations on the beaches of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. Major-General Ahmed Abdallah Muhammad, Governor of Red Sea province, explained: “After the revolution of June 30th 2013, we began to receive official Russian delegations in Hurghada. We have invited, in particular, a delegation of Russian Tourism Agency in order for them to be convinced of the security measures. Not only tourists from Russia come to Hurghada, but about 30 thousand Russians almost constantly live in Hurghada. Approximately 40-45% of all the tourists who come to our province are Russians. In about a month a Russian consulate will open in Hurghada. And this event, without a doubt, will greatly facilitate the work with Russian tourists in our province.”
Major-General Haled Fouda, South Sinai Governor, says that Egypt has equipped the cities of the province with cameras that work constantly and film what is happening. “We removed all security checkpoints and police from the streets, so that tourists could walk freely, photograph, enjoy and even in the middle of the night, tourists can walk in the city freely,” Haled Fouda says.
Muhammad El-Badri, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Russian Federation, says that Russian tourism in Egypt, in the period from January to August of this year, amounted to about 2 million tourists. This reflects a decrease of about 7% in comparison with the same figure in the same period of the previous year. And at the same time, it is a great success of Russian tourism, since there is generally a significant reduction in the number of tourists travelling abroad, and some Russian experts estimate the drop to be 30%. And with a decrease of only 7%, Egypt continues to be one of the most important destinations for Russian tourists.
