Sharjah24 – AFP: Mussa al-Nahas sat outside his fragrance and spice shop overlooking the Red Sea beaming at the sight of Russian tourists, who are beginning to flood back to Sharm el-Sheikh six years after a terror attack.
"The return of Russian flights has spurred other countries to also open up," he added.
In the wake of the crash, Russia instituted a blanket ban on all flights to the Red Sea from 2015, and even to Cairo for a few weeks.
The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 was a double blow driving away the remaining tourists -- the country's lifeline.
Tourism represents about 10 percent of the GDP of Egypt where a third of the 100 million-strong population lives below the poverty line.
But in August, the fortunes of Sharm -- as it is affectionately known -- started to look up when the first plane from Moscow touched back down at the local airport.
After years of diplomacy, the long-running ban was finally lifted.
Currently, there are about 20 flights from Russia landing in Sharm every week.
Capitalising on the appetite for tourism after months of global lockdowns, Egypt's tourism ministry has waived visa fees for 28 countries including many from eastern Europe.
In April, the country welcomed half a million tourists alone, twice as many as January, according to official figures.
Tourists are also happy to be back in the largest Arab country with plenty to explore from the pyramids in the north to the beauty of the Red Sea corals.
In 2019, before the onslaught of the pandemic, Egypt's tourism revenues reached $13 billion. But they plummeted to $4 billion last year, a huge shock for some two million workers in the industry.
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