Kazakh Tour Operators Call for Increased Charter Support for Egypt, Linked to Flight Hours

During Egypt's participation in Expo Astana, talks on increasing the number of flights between the two countries

El-Demery: 11,000 Kazakh tourists visited Egyptian cities in the first four months of 2017

By Akram Medhat

Hesham El-Demery, head of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, began his visit to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, with intensive official and professional meetings as part of Egypt's participation in “Expo Astana 2017,” which runs from June 10 to September 10, 2017, under this year's theme of “Renewable Energy.”

The most prominent of these meetings was with the head of Kazakhstan's civil aviation authority, attended by Ambassador Haitham Salah, Egypt's ambassador to Kazakhstan, during which he stressed strengthening relations with the Kazakh side in all areas of cooperation, especially tourism, pointing to the request by tour operators in Kazakhstan to increase the number of flights between the two countries through low-cost or scheduled flights, in addition to charter flights.

In this context, El-Demery said he would convey this request to the Egyptian side, as the matter requires logistical support from the Kazakh civil aviation authority and its Egyptian counterpart.

For his part, the head of the Kazakh civil aviation authority affirmed his readiness to provide the necessary assistance in this regard, pointing to the agreement in force with the Egyptian side, which allows flights to be operated between the cities of Astana and Almaty and any Egyptian city.

Separately, El-Demery met with a number of tour operators working in Kazakhstan, stressing the importance of this market, from which 23,000 Kazakh tourists traveled to various Egyptian tourist destinations in 2015, with a notable increase in numbers from the last quarter of 2016, reaching about 11,000 tourists in the first four months of 2017. This reflects the positive indicators and figures achieved, which confirm growing demand and the desire of Kazakh citizens to enjoy the Egyptian tourism product.

For their part, a number of tour operators called for studying an increase in support for the charter flight program because of the long distance between Kazakhstan and Egypt, and for linking the amount of support to the number of flight hours, which reach 8 hours, compared with other markets such as Ukraine at only 4 hours. The head of the Tourism Promotion Authority said he would convey their request to the officials responsible for the matter at the Ministry of Tourism for study, and to examine whether it could be included in the current rules, which expire on October 31, 2017, or in the new rules.

El-Demery explained to the tour operators that many indicators confirm the improved image of the Egyptian tourist destination, most notably the resumption of air traffic to Egypt from various countries at a near-normal level, except for Russia and Britain's partial ban on Sharm El-Sheikh, in addition to visits to Egypt by many world leaders and celebrities in the arts, culture and sports during the past period, and the notable increase in tourist numbers from most markets in the first four months (January–April) of 2017, which reached 52% overall compared with the same period last year.

El-Demery stressed that the authority is ready to support any promotional or advertising activity that tour operators wish to carry out, especially inviting celebrities at various levels (arts, culture, sports) to visit the Egyptian tourist destination, given its great impact on promotion and publicity because of the large number of followers these celebrities have.