With 16,000 Ukrainian tourists stranded in Egyptian hotels, industry figures fear indirect costs of conflict

With Ukrainian airspace closed since Russia invaded the country six days ago, over 16,000 Ukrainian tourists are stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada and Marsa Alam, according to a Sunday statement by the Ukrainian chargé d'affairs in Egypt.

The Egyptian Tourism Ministry has called on the Egyptian Hotel Association to ensure that hotels and resorts extend the stay of Ukrainian and Russian tourists and provide them with all necessary services free of charge until they are able to return to their respective countries.

However, industry figures told Mada Masr that the stranded tourists represent another indirect impact of the conflict on Egypt’s economy, which is already suffering serious repercussions as import costs soar due to the near-complete inaccessibility of the Black Sea.

The ministry’s directive on Thursday did not specify how long hotels should host their stranded Ukrainian guests, though an employee at a Sharm el-Sheikh hotel told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that travel agencies acting on behalf of Ukrainian tourists sent letters to hotels requesting a free extension of their stays until March 3.

Ukraine International Airlines also informed Egypt that if any stranded Ukrainian wishes to return to a European destination near Ukraine, it would coordinate their return with another airline free of charge. However, Elhamy al-Zayat, an Egyptian agent for the airline said that only a few Ukrainian nationals are likely to leave Egypt this way.

If the crisis persists and Ukrainians cannot return, each hotel housing Ukrainian tourists stranded in Egypt will incur LE 50,000 to LE100,000 in losses on a daily basis for their continued stay, Ali Mansour, a member of the board of directors of the Egyptian Chamber of Tourism Establishments, told Mada Masr.

Discussion regarding costs is already taking place between the hotels and travel agencies that arranged the tourists’ visits, said Alaa Akel, the head of the Egyptian Hotel Association. There are other ongoing talks aimed at securing contribution from the government, he added, noting that establishments are keeping the bills of stranded tourists on record.

It's the hotels that are footing the bill for the moment, however, said Zayat, adding that he believes the Tourism Ministry should contribute to the costs of facilitating the hosting of stranded Ukrainian nationals in Egypt, especially given that the Egyptian tourism sector is only just beginning to recover from the blow that two years of the coronavirus pandemic has dealt to the industry. 

Egypt’s tourism revenues slumped by 70 percent in 2020, reaching only US$4 billion in comparison to $13.1 billion in 2019.

Meanwhile, Mansour and Zayat said that flights carrying Russian tourists back to their country are continuing as usual.

Ukrainians currently make up around 3 percent of tourists visiting Egypt and contribute about 2.5 percent of the industry’s total revenues, Ibrahim al-Zayat told Mada Masr, noting that reservations from Ukraine had begun to plummet even before the invasion began on Thursday.

The government had anticipated 300,000 to 400,000 Russian tourists per month when Russia resumed flights to Egypt’s east coast resorts in 2021, after a long hiatus that followed a 2015 militant attack on a Russian tourist flight above the Sinai Peninsula.