Russians insist to buy travel packages to Egypt

Around 35% of clients of Russia’s largest tour operator Pegas Touristik demand they’re allowed to travel to Egypt; hence the company is forced to sell travel packages to the unstable country, said Anna Podgornaya, Director General of Pegas Touristik. “Despite the agency warning clients of the situation in the country and giving recommendations, there are tourists who insist that we fulfill our obligations and sell them tours. This constitutes about 30-35%,” she said. The spokesperson clarified that as soon as the company received recommendations from the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturism), Pegas Touristik managed to cut down sale of travel packages to Egypt five-fold. Rosturism recommends cutting down on selling tours to Egypt and try to reroute tourists to other destinations. Tour operators also need to inform tourists of the current situation on Egyptian resorts through all means possible. An official report  released by a representative of the Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturism) says that 15,000 Russian tourists are currently at Egyptian resorts, Rosturism press service said on Tuesday. Since the majority of travel operators have suspended selling tours to Egypt the remainder of the Russian tourists are expected to return to their homeland within September, Rosturism said. Meanwhile, the Russian tourists have been leaving Egypt according to schedule, but a number of travel operators have been transporting their tourists from Egypt ahead of schedule. Rosturism said that the situation in the resort zones remains calm. There were no breaks in the system of commodities and food supply; banks are open every day, Rosturism said. Previously, on August 15, Russia’s Foreign Ministry recommended Russian citizens avoid traveling to Egypt.