Egypt promising to simplify visa regulations for Kazakhstan

Egypt will simplify visa regulations for Kazakhstan citizens, Tengrinews.kz reports citing press-service of Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The question of simplifying visa regulations was raised in a meeting of Kazakhstan ambassador to Egypt Bakhtiyar Tassymov with Egyptian Ministry of Tourism Munir Fakhry Abdel Nour. They agreed to accelerate signing of the intergovernment agreement on tourist visas to Kazakhstan citizens in Egyptian airports. The draft of this agreement was earlier submitted to the Egyptian party. It was noted at the meeting that Egyptian party is very interested in simplifying visa regulations for Kazakhstan. “Egypt is bearing big losses caused by decrease of the number of foreign tourists. Tourism brought $12 billion to the country’s budget (over 10 percent of GDP) last year. It is one of the major sources of income for the Egyptian economy. The Tourism Minister hopes to reach the pre-crisis level by the end of the year and expects the country to be visited visited by 10 million tourists. Tourism sector had a stable 30% growth in April. Hotels in the most popular cities of the Red Sea are 40-50 percent full,” Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry’s press-services cited Egyptian Minister of Tourism. It was also suggested to resume the suspended Almaty-Cairo flight. Head of Egyptian touristic company Global Star announced that charter flights from Kazakhstan to Sharm el-Sheikh will be launched in the nearest time.