Silver Cloud cruise ship arrived to Port of Safaga with 247 tourists of different nationalities on board. The cruise tour will include Luxor and Aswan's archaeological sites, Spokesman for Red Sea Ports Authority Malak Youssef said on Tuesday. Youssef added, in a statement, the authority has managed to ease the arrival procedures of the ship and completed all tourists' inspection procedures. Tourism officials expect an increase in the number of tourists visiting Egypt in the coming period, as European countries began lifting the ban imposed on the Sinai. US, Russia along with other European countries have issued bans on flights from and to the Sinai, after a Russian passenger plane crashed over the peninsula in October 2015, killing all passengers and flight crew. The Safaga port is located in the Red Sea Governorate on the Western coast of the Red Sea. It is a broad bay (natural gulf) on a distance of 60 km South of Hurghada and on a distance of 225 nm. South of Suez port. This broad bay is naturally protected from the east and the north sides from the prevailing western winds by mountains. The port drafts are deep, thus enabling the accommodation of large vessels, according to Maritime Transport Sector (MTS). The number of tourists who visited Egypt amounted to 640,179 tourists in February 2016 according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). Egypt has been attempting to boost tourism sector by inviting celebrities including famous American actor Will Smith, Spanish Barcelona club star Lionel Messi, who took private tours of the pyramids, and Indian actress Parineeti Chopra who visited Luxor in March.
