Whereas some countries complain about misbehavior of Russian holiday makers abroad, Egypt’s government is holding the opposite view. Apart from negative impressions, Russian tourists leave massive cash when travelling. The latter outweighs the negative image. It is the reason why Egypt brought forward the plan to accept Russian rubles as a legal tender. Amid fears about a waning tourist stream, the tourism ministry decided to adopt this measure until the situation on the forex market levels off and the Russian ruble offsets some of its losses. Egypt’s minister of tourism Hisham Zazou said that both Russia and Egypt are testing the mechanism of bilateral transactions without the U.S. dollar. If the experience of using the ruble for travel packages and fees to Russian travel agencies is a success, in the future, according to this scheme, these funds may be used by Cairo to pay for goods imported from Russia. Importantly, the lucrative tourist business wobbled in December when the flow of tourists fell sharply almost by half following the collapse of the ruble. About 3 million Russians vacationed in the land of the pyramids in 2014. Besides, Russian holiday makers were the first to return to Egypt after the massive outflow of foreign travelers amid the political disorder. Interestingly, Egypt is not the first country which takes such a decision. Ahead of the New Year, several large hotel chains in Turkey and Bulgaria cut accommodation costs for Russian travelers. In addition, Cairo cancelled a visa fee for Russians for four months from January 15 to April 30. In the context of using the ruble in the tourism sector, experts predict that a number of Russian tourists will grow by 20%. Meanwhile, travel agencies noted an abrupt decrease in tourism caused by the devaluation of the ruble, which has lost more than half its value against the U.S. dollar since last year. Nowadays, there are far fewer people who can afford to buy a tour for dollars or euros. More and more Russians consider a holiday abroad to be a luxury opting to spend their savings on more important things.
