CRI听力:Russia's Tourists Affected by Flight Suspension to Egypt 

Russia, along with Turkey and several countries in Europe, have suspended flights into the popular resort destination of Sharm al-Sheikh after the crash of the Russian jetliner in Egypt two Saturdays ago.

Irina Tiurina with Russia's Travel Industry Union says the Kremlin's decision to suspend Russian flights into Egypt is going to be a significant financial blow for both countries, as Egypt is a popular holiday destination for Russians.

"Tourist agencies will of course suffer colossal losses because they cannot sell Egypt now, and because they will have to invest financially in the alternatives they will have to offer tourists. And Egypt is in shock as a whole, because they are losing business. The situation is very difficult."

Tiurina says to make up for the loss of Egypt as a destination, Russian tourist agencies are looking to Turkey as an alternative.

"Large tourist agencies are redirecting their flights to Antalya. Of course it is not an equivalent exchange in terms of climate, but there are no variants. The majority, that is almost everyone agrees to fly, because when people have already set their minds on vacation, they are not ready to drop it."

One of the other challenges Russian tourist agencies are trying to cope with is getting the thousands of Russians who have been stranded in Egypt because of the flight restrictions.

"According to yesterday's data, 80,000 Russian tourists were on holiday in Egypt. It is the data of tourist agencies which have announced their own numbers each, at the meeting in the Federal Agency for Tourism. It came up to 80,000 that is yesterday's numbers, today a part of those people were transported (to Russia) by planes."

So far only a few thousand Russian tourists have been able to make it out. Compounding the problem is the capacity at the airport in Cairo, which has forced Egyptian authorities to limit the number of planes which can make it in and out on a daily basis.

This is because tens-of-thousands of British and European tourists have also been stranded because of the flight restrictions into Sharm al-Sheikh.

The confusion and uncertainty surrounding the crash and its aftermath represents the latest blow to an Egyptian economy which relies on tourism almost exclusively as its main source for hard currency.

Its tourism sector has been reeling for the last 4-years since the start of the revolution in 2011 which toppled long-time Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

For CRI, this is Luo Wen.