Sunny, hot days return to Egyptian tourism industry

Alexandria, a port city in Egypt. The Chinese Spring Festival holiday is the busiest season for Chinese traveling to Egypt.[Photo provided to China Daily]

It is one of the driest and hottest places on Earth, but for the past few years it is as though the Egyptian city of Aswan has been shrouded in a winter mist, cold-shouldered, like the rest of the country, by the world's tourists.

But on Feb 16 more than 250 Chinese Spring Festival holidaymakers flew into Aswan from Shanghai, a harbinger of better days for Egypt's battered tourism industry.

It was the first direct flight from China to Aswan, on the Nile River, and over the next few days the city welcomed more Chinese, from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, and Shenzhen, Guangdong province. All were passengers on inaugural charter flights put on by the Egyptian airline Air Leisure, which says the flights were 90 percent full.

The Chinese Spring Festival holiday is the busiest season for Chinese traveling to Egypt.

"We now have three weekly charter flights from Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen to Aswan," said Abualmaaty Shaarawy, tourism counselor at the Egyptian embassy in Beijing. "Our plan is to have two more, from Beijing and Wuhan, capital of Hubei province."

All flights are direct, and there will also be direct flights between China and Cairo, he says, adding that he hopes the charter flights will bolster a surge of tourists from China to Egypt after three grim years.

The Egyptian embassy's tourism office says 65,000 Chinese visited Egypt last year, putting China outside its top markets.

Russians form the largest group visiting the country as tourists, 3 million doing so last year, followed by Germans.

"We aim to attract 200,000 Chinese tourists to Egypt this year, making China our sixth-largest overseas market," Shaarawy said. "China has a huge tourism market, so we have a chance."

The influx of Chinese tourists to Aswan last month is not the only reason for Egypt's growing confidence about China as a source of tourists. The sheer number of Chinese now going overseas on holiday is a dazzling prospect for tourist operators everywhere.