You're reading: Ukrainian tourists bring life to Egypt’s troubled Sinai resorts

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt – On a freezing morning in late December at Kyiv’s Zhuliany international airport, the departure schedules are packed with charter flights bound for the Egyptian Sinai resort of Sharm El Sheikh, most of them operated by Ukraine’s new low-cost airline SkyUp.

Hundreds of Ukrainian families brushed the snow off their thick winter coats before stuffing them into suitcases as they got ready to take off and welcome the New Year in warmer climes, swapping the icy streets and grey skies of Kyiv for the turquoise water and sunshine of Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

Located on the Sinai peninsula’s southernmost tip, some 20 kilometers across the Gulf of Aqaba from Saudi Arabia, the resort of Sharm is perfect for holidaymakers wanting to escape Ukraine’s subzero winter for an affordable break.

And in Egypt, where the tourism industry has struggled through the last eight years since the country had its own EuroMaidan-style uprising and a number of terrorism-related incidents (not to mention a number of fatal shark attacks) the influx of Ukrainian visitors, seemingly unfazed by security risks, has been greatly welcomed.

Indeed, at Sinai coastal resorts like Sharm, Ukrainian visitors – growing in number – seem to be playing a significant part in keeping the tourism sector alive.

Holidaying families from all over Ukraine are breathing life and energy into this resort, while other visitors, particularly from Western Europe, have largely stopped coming due to security concerns.

But with Russian charter flights to Sinai resorts set to resume sometime in the first quarter of 2019, according to Egyptian and Ukrainian tour operators, it’s not clear if Ukraine’s love affair with Egyptian summer holidays will last much longer.

Given the worsening relations between the two countries, if the Russians return in large numbers, the Ukrainians might well start to look elsewhere.

Troubled tourism

With prices in Egypt driven low by revolution, Islamist terrorism and disaster, Ukrainian holidaymakers and tour companies weren’t shy about seizing an opportunity.

A one week, all-inclusive holiday with return flights to Sharm El Sheikh can now be had from some Ukrainian tour agencies for as little as Hr 5,000 per person, or about $180. An all-inclusive week in a five-star resort, including a chartered SkyUp flight from a main Ukrainian city such as Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia or Lviv, can be had for as little as $400 per person, even during peak periods like Christmas and New Year.

But these rock bottom prices aren’t without reason.

Egyptian business-owners, especially on the troubled Sinai Peninsula, have been slashing prices to bring visitors back to the country after a number of high-profile events saw prospective tourists desert the country as some governments even implemented flight bans.

With nearly 15 million visitors in 2010, an all-time high for Egypt, the country’s tourism sector was relatively strong, especially for the Middle East and North Africa.

Everything began to change in 2011 though, as Arab Spring protests swept through the region, triggering a EuroMaidan-style revolution in Egyptian cities that eventually deposed President Hosni Mubarak, who had held power in the country for three decades. After strongman Mubarak was ousted, the military took control of Egypt, followed soon after by the ultraconservative, Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood. Tourism numbers for the country continued a downward spiral.

They reached rock bottom, however, when ISIS terrorists detonated a bomb aboard a chartered, St. Petersburg-bound plane over the Sinai in 2015, shortly after it took off from Sharm El Sheikh airport, killing all 224 passengers and crew on board, almost all of them Russians.

With the Russians suspending all civilian air traffic into the country, and as an ISIS-backed insurgency in the Sinai raised further security concerns, Egypt’s annual tourism numbers plummeted to their lowest in years at 4.8 million.

Meanwhile, hundreds of hotels and tour companies in Sharm El Sheikh, most of which have staff who speak fluent Russian, started falling into disrepair as they became deprived of millions of visitors and billions in revenue.

Ukrainian influx

In 2017 and 2018, as Egypt’s political situation stabilized somewhat, the country’s tourism numbers also began to turn around, with Ukrainian visitors playing a big part. In 2017 the country reported 8.3 million visitors: a significant recovery over the previous two years.

Tour agencies had acted quickly in the wake of the 2015 disaster to save the Sinai’s tourism sector, aggressively marketing the region’s resorts in countries that have Russian-speaking populations, particularly Ukraine.

At least 800,000 Ukrainians visited Egypt in 2017, almost all of them flying to a resort like Sharm El Sheikh with a charter flight, and the number is expected to have passed one million in 2018 as SkyUp got up and running, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

Italians, Germans and some other Europeans are still visiting Sharm in modest numbers too, as do a small number of holidaymakers from the Baltics and Caucasian states, but mostly, this Sinai resort now feels like it’s firmly in the hands of the Ukrainians.

And why not? – Sharm is perfectly set up for Ukrainian families and reachable by a three-hour flight.

Years of Russian tourism mean that the managers, guides, staff, and signage are all in a language that Ukrainian families understand; Ukrainian pop stars and music groups perform at the venues and prices are low since the British, French and Russian tourists basically stopped coming.

In some restaurants and hotels, the staff have even started to learn the Ukrainian language, out of respect to their new clientele.

“It’s perfect for me,” said Mariana, an interior designer from Odesa who was only visiting Sharm for three days over New Year. “It’s the only affordable winter destination at the moment… and it’s very close and convenient for us,” she added.

In December and January, there are practically no destinations outside of North Africa that are within reach of Kyiv for a warm, winter holiday.

For Mariana and many like her, the alternative options available from tour agencies – Sri Lanka, India, Thailand or Bali – are much more expensive and not very practical.

In 2019 however, some changes are on the horizon that could challenge Ukrainian dominion over Sinai resorts and force them to consider holidaying elsewhere.

Russians and British will return

“We do miss the British a lot,” said Luca, a tour operator and dive instructor in Sharm El Sheikh who speaks English, Russian and Italian.

“It’s all very political,” he added, when asked why he thought the Brits stopped coming to Sharm.

In reality, it’s because a number of ISIS-linked terrorist attacks – especially in Tunisia and the Egyptian Sinai – over recent years in which dozens of European holidaymakers were killed have seen tour companies cancel their services here as governments warned against travel.

While some U.K. tour companies have tentatively restarted marketing their holidays to southern Red Sea resorts like Marsa Alam, troubled Sinai is likely to remain the domain of Russian-speaking tourists.

And for security-conscious Brits, French and Germans who have deeper pockets than the Ukrainians, places like Thailand, Bali and Malaysia are more easily within reach.

Luca says that almost 100 percent of the tours he has serviced through the past few years are now Ukrainian, with small groups of Italians sometimes coming. He says he likes the Ukrainian tourists, but his profits are significantly down.

“We are very much looking forward to the day when Russian tourists will return… the Ukrainians are very good people and we like them a lot, but the Russians bring more money and spend more,” he said, adding that prices have been lowered significantly since the Ukrainians took over Sharm.

“If the Russians come back, prices will probably go up by 300 percent – I don’t know if all Ukrainians will be able to afford this,” Luca added.

In 2019, some tour operators will likely get their wish, as holiday companies announce that Russian charters to Sharm are scheduled to restart in the first quarter of this year.

Faced with large numbers of returning Russians, as well as rising prices, it remains to be seen if Ukrainian tourists will stick around, or begin searching for holidays elsewhere.