Seabourn, MSC Cruises Cancel Calls at Egypt This Fall Jul 24th 2013, 14:09
Two more cruise lines — Seabourn and MSC Cruises — cancelled plans to call at Egyptian ports this fall and winter due to continuing political unrest. Seabourn amended the itineraries of three cruises in October, while the Italian line changed the programs for the MSC Fantasia and MSC Armonia. News reports said continuing violence has resulted in the deaths of 11 people in the last two days. The U.S. State Department warned against travel to Egypt on July 3. Previously, Holland America Line cancelled calls in Egypt and Avalon Waterways suspended its Nile river program.
The Seabourn Legend’s 15-day cruise from Civitavecchia (Rome) to Athens departing on Oct. 5 will not call at Alexandria but instead will visit Santorini on Oct. 9, Crete on Oct. 10 and Marmaris, Turkey, on Oct. 11. Its Oct. 20 cruise, an 18-day voyage from Athens to Dubai, will no longer call at Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh and Safaga. The itinerary was revised to call at Crete on Oct. 21, Rhodes on Oct. 22, sea day on Oct. 23, Haifa on Oct. 24, Ashdod for Jerusalem on Oct. 25, Suez Canal transit on Oct. 26, sea day on Oct. 27 and Aqaba, Jordan, on Oct. 28.
The Seabourn Odyssey’s Oct. 12 departure, an 18-day cruise from Athens to Dubai, will not visit Hurghada and Safaga. The ship instead will visit Crete on Oct. 13, Haifa on Oct. 15, Ashdod on Oct. 16, Suez Canal on Oct. 17, Aqaba on Oct. 19, and three ports in Oman — Salalah on Oct. 25, Sur on Oct. 27 and Muscat on Oct. 28.
MSC Cruises cancelled MSC Armonia’s 2013-14 winter itineraries in the Red Sea and instead is offering two Canary Islands voyages. Also, the MSC Fantasia’s winter 11-night itineraries from Genoa, starting Nov. 25, no longer will call in Alexandria, but instead will visit Crete and overnight in Haifa.
The new seven-day MSC Armonia cruises will depart from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. One itinerary calls at Funchal, Santa Cruz de La Palma, San Sebastian and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The other will visit Casablanca, Agadir, Arrecife de Lanzarote and Puerto del Rosario.
As the cruise lines are still backing out of calls in Egypt, events in Egypt seem to have faded from the news in the weeks following the removal of former President Morsi from power. Mohamed Hegazy, the director of the Egyptian Tourist Authority in New York, released a statement on progress in Egypt. The statement covered four points.
A new government called “30 June Government” has been put together under Hazem Al-Beblawi, the liberal economist who is serving as the country’s interim prime minister. According to the statement, the new government “includes a majority of liberals and technocrats and some leftists.” The new government’s 34 ministers were sworn in July 17.
Al-Beblawi was central to selecting the new ministers. He was supported by political activist and ex-diplomat Mohamed Al-Baradei and economist Ziad Bahaaeddin, who are referred to in the statement as “liberal icons.” According to Hegazy, “The three men belong to two newly formed political parties that espouse a mixed ideology of liberal democracy and social justice, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and the Dostour (Constitution) Party.”
Mohamed Al-Baradei, the ex-chief of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency and a Nobel laureate, was appointed vice president for international relations. Hegazy reads this as an attempt to reach out to the west.
Hisham Zaazou, the minister of tourism who resigned in June after the appointment as governor of the province of Luxor of a member of the terrorist group responsible for the massacre of Luxor in 1997, is a member of the new cabinet and will head the travel marketing operations for Egypt.
And finally, according to the statement, Egypt has increased its number of tourist entries during the first six months of 2013 by 13 percent over the same period in 2012 to 6 million tourists.
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