Sunday, November 8, 2015

Russia plane crash: '11,000 tourists back' from Egypt

BBC.com, November 8, 2015
“Russia says it has flown 11,000 tourists home from Egypt in the past 24 hours, and more will return on Sunday. Moscow announced on Friday that it was suspending all flights to Egypt after a Russian plane crashed in Sinai - having initially dismissed suspicions that a bomb brought down the jet. Dozens of special flights were put on for tourists wanting to go home.”                                                                                                                                                                

Apparently, Russia’s government is bringing Russian tourists back from Egypt. Initially Russia criticized the United Kingdom for returning United Kingdom citizens from Egypt. However, Russia decided to emulate the United Kingdom by returning Russian citizens from Egypt and suspending all flights to Egypt. Egypt’s tourist industry will be impacted until the situation is resolved.  Egypt is a very popular vacation destination for Russian citizens. In fact, one out of every three foreign tourists in Egypt is a Russian citizen. Moreover, Egypt is a very popular destination during the holy season.  I believe that it is a wise decision for many tourists to change their vacation destinations because the holy season overlaps with the recent conflicts in the Middle East.  The article states that there were approximately eighty thousand Russian visitors in Egypt on Friday when the Russian government decided to suspend flights to Egypt. I believe that it is unreasonable for the Russian government to allow their citizens to fly to Egypt based upon recent activities in Egypt such as the Metrojet Flight 9268 crash.

Yiby Person


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