26,000 tourists arrive in Egypt on Easter Sunday

[DJKeefy]

26,000 tourists arrive in Egypt on Easter Sunday despite Euro travel alerts.

Around of 26,000 tourists arrived at Egypt's various airports from international destinations Sunday to celebrate Easter and the spring festival (Sham El-Nasim), reported state-owned Al-Ahram Arabic news website.

The name Sham El-Nasim (Inhaling the Breeze) comes from the ancient Coptic language that in turn is derived from Pharaonic language.

Al-Ahram detailed that 2,799 tourists came from Israel’s Eilat to visit Egypt through Taba. Some 8,000 tourists arrived at Marsa Allam Airport in Southern Egypt, mostly via international flights.

Red Sea tourist-friendly city Hurghada saw the most visits Sunday, with 15,560 tourists arriving mostly visiting from Russia, Germany and England.

Some 43,000 tourists arrived in the South Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada combined over the last two days.

Egypt’s ailing tourism sector, which contributes 11 percent to the country’s GDP, saw its revenues fall 41 percent to $5.9 billion in 2013 compared to 2012.

Last week, Germany's second-biggest airline, Air Berlin, cancelled flights to Sharm El-Sheikh due to deteriorating security conditions for foreign tourists in the Sinai Peninsula.

The airline's announcement follows warnings by Belgium, Germany and Switzerland for their nationals to avoid Sinai following recent terrorist attacks there.

In February, three South Korean tourists were killed in a bomb attack on a bus in the first assault on tourists since former president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July 2013 spurred an Islamist insurgency.

For its part, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism announced plans to take a series of precautionary measures to bolster security in Red Sea touristic cities.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/99485.aspx

[Chocolate Eclair]

Notice its all Red Sea resorts getting the tourists, what are they offering that Luxor is not? besides easy travel. It would be interesting to know how many came for Nile Cruises, not many I think, due to the cruisers still being tied up on the Nile Banks.

[Glyphdoctor]

All-inclusive resorts you don't have to leave except coming to and from the airport. That's what they offer that Luxor doesn't.

[Who2]

Quote: what are they offering that Luxor is not?
How's about: Decent bars, decent restaurants, russian signs, fun! Sun sea sand & sex, (and not with pensioners)
Plus 'youff [sic] tourism, Luxor is for oldies except hung-over Ruski's sleeping it off on the bus over the mountains...

[Lisak]

Ummmmm....the sea????

[Who2]

Ummmmm....the sea????

"You know, that stuff all around the UK, here it's called the Red sea, but they lie it's blue...
back to work!

[DJKeefy]

Ummmmm....the sea????

"You know, that stuff all around the UK, here it's called the Red sea, but they lie it's blue...
back to work!

Not always a lie though when the Trichodesmium erythraeum blooms

[Who2]

Yeh! 'Blooming Right! I was playing truant that day...

[Dusak]

... or the odd oil slick moves closer to the shore... The big H and Sharm, all modern man made for the sole purpose of tourism... Luxor, created via a nation of peoples over thousands of years that cannot be replicated, no comparison, but its their [the holidaymakers] choice at the end of the day as to whether they come or don't. We may be oldies that live here, or visit, but all young at heart.