Egypt's tourist industry suffers huge losses

Egypt's popular tourist areas are suffering immensely from a slump in revenues due to nationwide riots, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada on Thursday.

Egypt has seen huge protests mainly in the largest cities of the North African country since last month , with Tuesday's protestors reaching into the millions demanding that President Hosni Mubarak step down from power. At least 150 people have been killed and some 4,000 injured in riots throughout the country, with the largest masses seen in the country's capital of Cairo.

Many foreign vacationers have either left Egypt after the riots began, or have canceled their plans to visit the land of pharaohs altogether.

On a plane from Moscow to Hurghada, a popular resort for Russians, there were only 20 passengers on board that usually carries between 150 and 200 on a regular charter flight. The Russian airliner landed in the city's ghostly international airport where there was only one other airplane from Syria that was preparing for takeoff.

An official from the Russian Federation of Tourism, Sergei Teodovorich, who is based in Hurghada, said that there were some 20,000 Russian tourists in the resort city on Sunday. He said another 15,000 Russians were in another Red Sea resort, Sharm el-Sheikh. He said that in all there were presently more than 40,000 Russian tourists in Egypt(Agencies).