Egypt no longer top choice for Romanians

The number of Romanian tourists travelling to Egypt will go down substantially over the next few months and some agencies will drop charter flights altogether to destinations in this country. The news comes as a result of last week”s terrorist attack in the Sharm El-Sheikh tourist resort. “Egypt was the destination of 2004, when it attracted 10,000 to 15,000 Romanian tourists. After the terrorist attack I think there will be no more than 6,000 tourists for the entire year,” said Alin Burcea, the chairman of Paralela 45, a travel agency in Bucharest. At an average price per trip of 500 euros, this means that annual revenues of travel agencies this year from sales of package tours to Egypt will be in the region of 3 million euros, down from 5-7.5 million euros last year. Burcea estimates that, besides Turkey and Egypt, London will also see a decline over the next six months, but will then start to rebound provided no more attacks occur during that period. Paralela 45 cancelled their charter flight to Egypt, which was to be introduced on September 1. “It is most unlikely that there would have been any demand, so we are no longer offering it,” explains Burcea. According to the National Association of Travel Agencies of Romania (ANAT), Romania could witness a slight increase in the number of incoming tourists due to being considered a low terror risk country. ZF