Since December 5, Pegas Touristik tour operator organizes tours to Egypt with a flight to Israeli Uvda. However, despite the extremely high interest for the destination from Russian tourists, according to the representatives of travel agencies, the demand for such programs is extremely low.
Recall that the start of sales of tours to Egypt through Uvda became known in early November. At the same time, even then, the experts were quite skeptical about this idea. A month later, the situation did not change - according to agencies, due to the long way to the resort and difficulties at the border with Israel, there is actually no demand for such packages.
“First of all, we do not sell Egypt, but Israel. And as long as there are no direct flights to Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, there will be no demand in the Egyptian destination. So, the idea of going to Egypt through Uvda is not popular,” said Alexan Mkrtchyan, the director of Pink Elephant network.
The expert stressed that there are difficulties with the passage of the Israeli border. “Only non-professional agencies do not warn tourists about interviews at the airport and on the land border with representatives of Israeli special services. Therefore, of course, we need direct flights to Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh airports, not flights to Israel or somewhere else”, Mr. Mkrtchyan concluded.
Another factor that plays against Egypt, according to retail representatives, is prices. “There is a little interest among the customers. Egypt has traditionally been popular due to low prices. Now they are very high”, added Sergey Egorov, co-owner of Priority agency.