clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Israel: news website says 20,000+ Israelis visited Cairo last year

April 6, 2023 at 11:34 am

The swimming pool area at a high end hotel stands empty beside the Nile River shore on October 23, 2013 near Luxor, Egypt [Ed Giles/Getty Images]

A news website in Israel has reported that more than 20,000 Israeli tourists visited Cairo in 2022, a significant increase and an indication that Egypt’s capital might be replacing the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh as a favourite destination.

Thousands of Israelis crossed the border into Egypt in 2022, Globes reported, adding that along with the well-known Israeli tourism to the shores of the Sinai, it is Cairo and the famous Egyptian tourist destinations of Luxor and Aswan that are increasingly attracting Israeli tourists.

The Hebrew-language site quoted an Israeli tourist, Aharon Amuel Milo, who visited Cairo with 30 other Israelis on an organised trip to Cairo in February. He said that he left for the Egyptian capital despite warnings he had heard in local media about fears of demonstrations that may erupt in the neighbouring country due to poor economic conditions.

“Egyptians were very friendly in the hotels, on the ship on which we sailed on the Nile, and everywhere,” Milo explained. “And there were all kinds of policemen around us and there was a security man who was constantly close to us, so the feeling of safety was very strong.”

Last Monday, the Israeli website Walla predicted that nearly 200,000 Israelis are likely to visit the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula during the Jewish Passover holiday.

READ: Israeli extremism means that there are fewer opportunities for Arab normalisation