European tourists return to Egypt, and to a greater extent not to the Red Sea resorts, but to Upper Egypt, where most of the historical artifacts are concentrated. We are talking about a full-scale expansion of programs of river cruises on the Nile – from Luxor to Aswan and back, and even from the pyramids of Giza to Aswan. But for Russian and Ukrainian tourists, who previously made up the majority of foreigners in Egypt, Nile cruises have never been in favor.
“There is a boom in tourism on the Nile. There is strong demand for this promising product from foreign tour operators in many tourism export markets, especially from France and Germany. Booking figures show that inbound tourism to Luxor in April is at a very good level,” Egyptian media said. It also reports that a number of French travel company owners have called for long Nile cruises for their tourists from Giza to Luxor and Aswan.
“This confirms the importance of these trips for foreign tourists and their contribution to the revival of the tourist traffic on the Nile, as well as the fact that these trips represent a special tourism product in terms of its economic value,” Egyptian experts add. The first place on the Nile cruises, by the way, was taken by French tourists, who took second place among the countries sending tourists to Egypt in the first quarter of this year. And the first one turned out to be in Spain.
Russian tourists are rather indifferent to this type of recreation, although in the “old times” Nile cruises were included in the assortment of tour operators. However, the product for the Russian tourist is still a beach holiday + day trip. By the way, according to tourism expert Mohamed Othman, head of the Cultural Tourism Marketing Committee, Luxor currently receives about 2,000 tourists from Hurghada daily by land. “These trips are helping to increase visits to the archaeological and cultural sites and temples in Luxor. Also, thanks to him, bazaars and tourist shops are shorter. The period of stay of these tourists in Luxor before returning to Hurghada is several hours, during which they visit cultural and archaeological sites in the governorate,” said the expert.
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