Russian travel agency reports recession of interest in Egypt tours after air crash in Sinai

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Tourism Agency (Rostourism) reports numerous calls from tourists feared of flying to Egypt after Airbus A321 crash in Sinai on Saturday, Rostourism spokeswoman Irina Shchegolkova told TASS on Monday. "Tourists are renouncing from their tours, Rostourism receives lots of calls," Shchegolkova said, adding, "People are cancelling the tours to Egypt for the coming dates as well as for the New Year holidays." In her words, Rostourism receives the calls not only from clients of the Brisko tour company, which acted as a consolidator of the unfortunate chartered flight, but also from others tour agencies. "They try to get their money back from the tour operators but that does not happen," she said, adding that the tours annulation implies penalty charges. "Tourists have a complicated choice now whether to fly with fear or to lose the money," she said, adding, "However there exists no official Foreign Ministry’s recommendation not to visit Egypt." Earlier Maya Lomidze, the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia said that there were no mass requests for annulling the tours to Egypt after the crash, but lots of clients from different tourist agencies were concerned with the terms of tour annulation. Kogalymavia Flight 9268 came down about half-an-hour after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The disaster site is 100 kilometers south of the administrative center of North Sinai Governorate, the city of Al-Arish. All 224 aboard the plane, including 217 passengers and seven crew members, perished. Read more