The Cairo International Airport (CAI) received the first Korean Air's charter flight after seven years of absence, with 209 tourists onboard, said a statement from the airport, adding that the flight arrived to Cairo from Seoul on Friday evening. The statement pointed out that a delegation from Egyptian Tourism Authority (ETA), Ministries of Tourism and Civil Aviation welcomed the Korean visitors at the airport with flowers and souvenirs. The Korean Air will operate six charter flights in January and February 2019 in a step by the South Korean flag carrier to resume its regular direct flights to Egypt soon. “In the past years, we had about 70,000 annual Korean visitors to Egypt, but after the revolution, the situation changed. However, last year, we registered about 15,000 people which was considered an indication of improvement,” Yeocheol Yoon, South Korea's ambassador to Egypt, informed Daily News Egypt in April 2018. It is important to give Korean people the impression that Egypt is safe, as Koreans get scared of the media reports they watch, which show the militant attacks in Sinai and even in Cairo, noted the ambassador. He added that Korean travellers used to visit cultural destinations in Egypt but now they may come to Egypt for fun and to visit other cities such as Hurghada, Dahab, and Luxor. In the first half of 2018, Egypt's tourism revenues jumped by about 77% to $4.8bn, compared to the same period in 2017, a government official told Reuters late August 2018, adding that the number of tourists visiting Egypt saw a year-over-year increase of 41% to about 5 million visitors.
