According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), the temporary ban on air traffic with Egyptian cities, caused by the crash of the Russian plane in Sinai, will cause damage to Russian tour operators in the amount of approximately 3.6 billion rubles (about $56 million).
According to ATOR Vice President Dmitry Gorin, the amount of damage is made up of the average cost of a tour to Egypt of 800 US dollars and the number of tours already sold, which reaches 70 just for the period before the New Year.
It should be noted that the amount of damage may be significantly higher, since, according to the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI), the depth of sales of tours to the Egyptian destination reaches March next year, and the total number of tours sold exceeds 140 thousand. This was stated the day before by the head of the RTI press service, Irina Tyurina.
Meanwhile, Gorin reported that the ban on holidays in Egypt has already caused losses of about 10 million USD in just a few days. "Tour operators are in a very difficult situation now. In addition to paying for flights for outbound tourists only, since we do not bring in tourists, we are additionally paying for new flights to Turkey, Cyprus and other countries. Preliminary losses in the coming days have already amounted to $10 million.", — said the Vice President of ATOR.
