The discovery of Egypt can be attributed to those cases when a person is eagerly awaiting a certain event, and when it comes, he understands that the object of his attention is no longer interesting to him.
The Egyptian destination has been isolated from Russian tourists for such a long time that our compatriots are not in a hurry to go to the country of the pyramids and pharaohs. Of course, there were travelers who, despite all the bans and suspension of air traffic between the countries, flew to the main resorts of the north-eastern state, but compared to the figures before 2015, this is a drop in the ocean. And competitors were clearly not asleep all this time, wanting to get such a tasty tourist flow.
Over the past 2,5 years, Turkey has managed to survive both growth and crisis, and start everything from scratch. It seemed that the ban on air traffic with the republic would last about as long as with Egypt. Alas, Turkey has seriously worked on this issue, surpassing one of the main competitors in the fight for Russian tourists. Delegations to the "country of four seas" came much more often, because the local government, together with tourist organizations, constantly reminded about this problem and pushed the Russian side to make a positive decision on the issue of regular air traffic.
In Cairo, for the most part, they were waiting for Russia's initiative, as if it was not such an urgent issue for them. As a result, the ban lasted an order of magnitude longer than in Turkey, which, after the resumption of air traffic, has already managed to break the record for Russian tourist flow and is planning to set new records in 2018.
Turkish hoteliers have complained about their financial reports more than once in 2017, saying that they are barely breaking even. Tourism organizations nodded understandingly and asked for patience – first of all, they need to bring guests back to Turkey, especially Russians. The difficult period was passed more than successfully and this year a gradual increase in the prices of tour packages is planned. But despite this, the cost of a holiday in Turkey will still be cheaper compared to Egypt. And in terms of conditions and flight range, the republic clearly outperforms Cairo and company. In this context, it is not at all clear whether Egypt will be able to compete with Turkey in the coming years not only in attracting Russians, but also tourists from other countries.
