A month and a half after the start of the special operation and the cancellation of international flights, there are still “refugee tourists” in Egypt. Basically, these are independent travelers and those who took the events as a chance to continue their vacation in the country of the pyramids for free. About what is currently happening to them and in what conditions they live, the Russian woman shared on the Yandex.Zen channel.
According to her, most tourists have already returned home. Package tourists were in the most “favorable” position in a critical situation, they were taken out first.
“Someone was lucky to fly without loss from delays, but for the majority, the return was an adventure: they had their flights rescheduled (for several hours or days), or they had to return to airports in other countries. Ukrainians flew through third countries and then got home on their own. Many tourists complained that they had to literally “knock out” their return home from the airline or tour operator, call the hotline, ask and demand. In this situation, organized package tourists, as usual, found themselves in a more advantageous position: they were taken out in the first place, ”the author explained the situation.
In less attractive conditions were individual tourists who had a limited amount of money and there was no return ticket to their home country. It was especially difficult for them when the dollar-ruble pair “stormed” – then the prices at the resorts soared significantly.
As the Russian woman noted, many tour operators “did everything” to return their tourists home. For example, this is what Join Up did: the last tourists who stayed in hotels for free left their rooms on March 14. “Those who wanted to stay in Egypt were looking for housing on their own,” the author added. However, things are not going smoothly for other operators: vacationers stay in the resorts of the country of the pyramids.
“The Egyptian authorities are against their eviction on the street: this will negatively affect the image of Egypt. By order of officials from the Ministry of Tourism, the remaining people were taken to certain hotels, that is, they were not distributed evenly among different hotels, but they were allocated specific hotels for such tourists, ”the blogger explained and added that tariffs for them are calculated at the minimum rate – only $ 10 per day (this is about 800 rubles) for accommodation and three meals a day. The costs of hoteliers are covered by the Tourism Fund.
However, not all hotels are delighted with the content of “defectors”. For example, several hotels in the luxury resort of Marsa Alam refused to feed such vacationers. However, the sharp stance cost them dearly, the Russian woman said: now they face a closure for three months. “About 700 people (mostly Ukrainians, but not only) with the participation of the police were evacuated (!!!) to other hotels. It is reported that “the Ministry of Tourism regarded the refusal as an insult to the tourist reputation of the country,” she added.
As for the attitude of the Egyptian authorities, they, according to the tourist, showed themselves worthy and “did not throw the tourists out into the street, but extended their stay in hotels, ”despite the incidental situations with fines due to expired visas.
“True, after a while they moved to the “three rubles”. but still did not take money for accommodation and meals. This concerned mainly Ukrainians, but not only – some Russians, due to the restriction of air traffic, also turned out to be among the “defectors”. Some even took it as a free continuation of the vacation and decided to “relax and have fun,” she said and noted that she had met reviews on the Internet of stranded tourists who complained not about the fact that they could not go home, but about the rise in the cost of beer, and then on non-working bank cards.
In general, the blogger noted that she sees a lot of Slavic residents at the resorts – now there are more of them than tourists. “Russia has begun to gradually restore the flight program since the beginning of April, but this is still a drop in the ocean. And most of us don’t have time to rest now,” the Russian woman concluded.
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