Egypt used to get a lot of its GDP from tourism when it welcomed thousands of European visitors every day to it’s sunny resorts. All that changed with the Arab spring of 2011 brought instability and caused a lot of EU nations to consider some of the Egyptian vacation resorts as ‘unsafe’, thus making it impossible for the European tour operators to easily organize trips there.
Since 2014 it is back on the list as a European favorite, but due to the nearness of ISIS terrorism (in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq), things have not yet returned to normal. Also, the constant attacks on Christian churches do not help to build a hospitable image for the country.
Add to that the poor safety record when it comes to tourist day trips, and you get why the prices of a week ‘all-in’ to Egypt are as low as ever.
This latest news will certainly not help. A balloon ride above the temples of Luxor turned deadly yesterday as it crashed down, killing at least one foreign tourist (a South African woman) and injuring twelve more.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">1 American woman was killed, 7 other passengers were injured in a hot air balloon carrying tourists crash land in bad weather in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Luxor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Luxor</a> south of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Egypt?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Egypt</a> <a href="https://t.co/atdyBRogON">pic.twitter.com/atdyBRogON</a></p>— SaadAbedine (@SaadAbedine) <a href="https://twitter.com/SaadAbedine/status/949197570751868928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Unfortunately, this is not a first. Balloon ride accidents for tourists are a usual feat in Egypt now
Back in 2013, 19 tourists were killed when a balloon caught fire in midair as you can see in the hereunder video
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And in 2016, those balloon flights, which are highly popular with tourists, were temporarily halted in the city after more than 20 people were injured in a similar accident.
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