200 Russian tourists to fly back home from Egypt today

Moscow, Feb 12 (Itar-Tass) About 200 Russian touristsare to come back home from Egypt today evening, RussianTourism Agency Rosturizm has said.

About 200 Russian tourists will board the finalcharter flight of the Red Wings airlines at Hurghada Airportat about 15:00 local time, and approximately at 20:00 Moscowtime, the plane is scheduled to land at Moscow''s Vnukovoairport, the press officer of Rosturizm, Oleg Moiseyev, hassaid, .

"Alongside the tourists representatives of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs and Rosturizm will return home,too," he said.

The spokesman said that "in the evening of Thursday,February 10, in Egypt there were about 300 tourists fromRussia, respectively, about 100 returned home on Friday, 11February."

Moiseyev added, "In Egypt there will remain at leastten tourists from Russia, so-called ''individual travelers'' whohad not bought any vouchers through travel agents." Amongthem, he speculated, are "divers and those who have refused toleave the resort early, but they are very few."

Moiseyev also noted that this would be the finalcharter flight.

Regular flights from Egypt will continue, but fromCairo, possibly with a stopover in Hurghada.

He recalled, "On January 29 Rosturizm established aninter-departmental center that constantly monitored thesituation involving Russian tourists at the resorts in Egypt."

In addition, he said, "the center opened hot phonelines and callers were free to have detailed information aboutwhat was happening at the resorts and in the administrativecenters of Egypt, as well as to obtain legal advice on thecancellation of contracts with travel agencies."

Moiseyev also stressed that Rosturizm and ForeignMinistry officials were quick to fly to the resorts to workwith the tourists and promote their return home.

The Russian Union of the Travel Industry promised that"those tourists who bought tours to Egypt, but had no chanceto fly, can either choose a different site for vacation orreceive compensation from the travel agencies."

However, tour operators have warned that paying cashcompensation to all tourists at a time would be impossible andsome may have to wait up to several months to have their moneyback. (Itar-Tass)