Some 1,755 tourists of various nationalities are scheduled to arrive at the Sharm al Sheikh Airport Sunday aboard 14 international flights, the head of South Sinai’s task force Essam Khedr told Youm7.
The airport also will receive 13 domestic flights carrying 845 Egyptians and Arab tourists visiting the Red Sea resort city, Khedr said, adding that the average occupancy rate at Sharm al-Sheikh hotels at the moment is estimated at 18 percent.
A total of 2,428 passengers are scheduled to depart the airport Sunday, said Khedr. Resorts in South Sinai will receive a total of 1,195 tourists coming from southern Israeli port of Eilat through the Taba border land crossing Sunday, he added.
The number of tourists visiting Egypt has witnessed a sharp decline following the crash of a Russian airliner over Sinai late October. Germany, Italy, Russia, France, the U.K. are among the states that decided to halt flights to and from Egyptian airports shortly after the crash.
British and Italian tourists account for more than 65 percent of Sharm al Sheikh holiday makers, the Tourism Ministry’s economy adviser Adela Ragab was quoted earlier by Youm7.
The number of tourists visiting Egypt in February 2016 decreased by 45.9 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) reported.
In February, the U.K.-based Thomas Cook travel company cancelled all bookings to Sharm al-Sheikh until November 2016, extending a travel ban that began when the government suspended flights following the crash.
The sector, which is the nation’s second highest source of national income after the Suez Canal, provides direct and indirect employment to up to 12.6 percent of the country’s workforce.
Egypt’s tourism authorities said in late December that the country received 9 million tourists in 2015, down from a previously predicted 17 million.
