Akshay Kumar– Mumbai
EgyptAir, national carrier of Egypt, is planning to expand its network in India with the launch of a new route between New Delhi and Cairo, from June 2014.
Speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld, Magdi Selim, undersecretary head, domestic tourism sector, Egyptian Tourist Authority, said, “We are launching a new connection between New Delhi and Cairo. This service will start very soon in the next three to four months. This new initiative has been taken to increase the tourism footfall to Egypt.”
The Egypt crisis which sparked in early 2011 had affected tourism adversely. Even after the conditions have stabilised, tourists are not aware of it. The Egypt Tourism Authority is aggressively promoting many new destinations for the Indian market.
Speaking about the status of tourism, Dr. Adel El Masry, director, Egyptian Tourism Office, said, “Egypt has gone through a bad phase, the crisis has hit tourism badly. We are currently promoting Egypt through various campaigns in India. Earlier in 2010, Egypt was a very popular destination for the Indians, around 100,000 Indian tourists used to visit our country. But after the crisis, tourism has gone down to around 70,000 Indian tourists in 2012-13.”
“The new tourism destination which we are currently promoting are the Red Sea beach and Sharm-el-Sheikh. Apart from these new attractions, ‘classic’ and ‘cultural’ tours and the Aswan cruise tour are already a huge hit,” said Selim.
