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Arrival in Egypt
Before booking a tour you shall study the visa requirements and check the validity of your passports in order to ensure that they comply with the migrations laws of the country that you are going to visit. To be able to enter Egypt, the validity of a foreign citizen’s passport shall be at least 6 months from the last day of the tour. If the validity of the foreign citizen’s passport does not meet the above-mentioned requirement, the entry into Egypt may be denied.
Currently there are two types of visas in Egypt:
At Sharm el-Sheikh airport, in the international flights arrival area, before the passport control area, there is a hall with the booths of various Destination Management Companies (DMCs). Tourists are required to show up at the booth with the OLD EGYPT TRAVEL logo or to the DMC’s employee wearing a uniform with the company’s logo and the OLD EGYPT TRAVEL sign. The DMC’s employees provide the tourists with the migration cards that shall be filled in for each tourist, including the children who are indicated in their parents’ passports. After filling in the migration card, tourists undergo passport control. During the passport control, the customs service officials may require presenting the hotel accommodation voucher and the return flight ticket.
Migration card form:
Arrival in Egypt
Egyptian laws prohibit the import of quadcopters and portable radio sets into the territory to the country.
In case the equipment that is prohibited from being imported is discovered during the customs control, it will be confiscated. While confiscating the equipment, the customs service officers draw up the corresponding report and give its copy to the tourist. The tourist shall keep the copy of the report until the end of the trip. On the basis of this report the tourist can retrieve the equipment during the customs control before taking a flight from Egypt.
The return of the confiscated equipment is performed only in the airport where the confiscation took place, and only to the tourist in whose name the report was drawn up. The return of the confiscated equipment to third parties or its return for the purpose of taking a flight from another airport is not allowed.
If a tourist manages to import the prohibited equipment illegally or to purchase it in Egypt, and if the fact of using such equipment is revealed, the equipment will be permanently confiscated, and an administrative or criminal case will be launched against the tourist. The use of the prohibited equipment can be treated by the public authorities as an attempt to breach the public and national security of Egypt. Neither the tour operator nor the DMC can influence the prompt and successful resolution of such situations since this is the issue of the tourist’s personal responsibility for the compliance with the Egyptian laws. Law enforcement authorities hold no negotiations with third parties except for lawyers hired by the travellers for representing their interests and other official representatives of the embassy/consulate of the tourists’ country of citizenship.
In case during the pre-flight inspection before leaving Egypt it is discovered that the tourists carries illegally imported equipment, it will be permanently confiscated, and the tourist will be held administratively liable.
Arrival in Egypt
Tourists who have booked an individual transfer shall be met at the exit from the arrival area by a guide wearing a uniform with the OLD EGYPT TRAVEL logo. The individual transfer service is offered with the guide’s accompanying the tourists both during the transfer and during the check-in. Individual transfers are carries out following the “airport-hotel” route without intermediate stops at other hotels.
It is prohibited to install branded booths of the DMCs at the exit from the Egyptian airports. Tourists who have opted for a group transfer shall be met at the exit from the arrival area by a DMC’s travel guide wearing a uniform with the OLD EGYPT TRAVEL log and a branded sigh. The tourists are required to produce to the travel guide their hotel accommodation vouchers. After the voucher control and the tourist’s identification in the group transfer passenger list, the bus number and its location at the parking lot shall be communicated to the tourist. All tourists are recommended to remain near the bus and wait until other passengers who travel on the same bus undergo passport and customs control and claim their luggage.
In case of carrying out a group transfer, the transportation takes place following the “airport-hotel” route with intermediate stops at the hotels whose number gets defined by the DMC depending on the hotels’ location with regard to the airport. The duration of a group transfer depends on a number of factors including the efficiency of the tourists’ leaving the airport building.
The DMC’s representatives shall wait for all the transfer group members. In case of a considerable delay of the tourists’ exit due to passport control problems, carrying of prohibited goods or luggage loss, it is recommended to notify the DMC calling the following hotline phone number in Sharm el-Sheikh +20 112 976 87 84 and Hurghada +20 112 976 87 65 (calls/messages, WhatsApp, Telegram). A full transfer group shall wait for the delaying passengers for no more than 30 minutes; if the tourists do not appear during the afore-mentioned period of time, the bus shall leave the airport. In such cases the transfer or taxi cost is not subject to compensation, and the price of the unused transfer service will not be refunded.
We kindly draw the tourists’ attention to the fact that they are required to treat other transfer members respectfully and follow the generally accepted rules of conduct while a group transfer is carried out. In case a tourist appears for the group transfer in a state of alcoholic intoxication, the DMC may refuse the transportation without compensating the transfer and/or taxi cost for the corresponding route.
During the airport-hotel transfer, the DMC’s representative who accompanies the passengers in the course of an individual or group transfer, informs the tourists on the date and time of an information meeting with the hotel guide. The hotel guides’ names and phone numbers are available in the hotel folder or at the information stand in the hotel lobby. As a rule, information meetings are held on the day of the tourists’ arrival at the hotel or on the following day. During the information meeting, the hotel guide presents important information on the country, insurance policy activation procedure, place of display of the information on the airport transfer arrival, and excursions that can be visited by the tourists during their stay. Apart from holding information meetings, hotel guides answer promptly to all the tourists’ questions and provide assistance in solving issues that may arise during the trip.
Hotel guides’ phone numbers and the DMC’s hotline phone number can be found in publicly available sources of information but such communication channels serve exclusively for interacting with tourists. Hotel guides have no authority to hold any negotiations with third parties, including the representatives of travel agencies or tour operators, tourists’ family members, etc. The hotline phone number serves for establishing a direct contact with tourists and promptly solving their problems. Third parties who are not tourists are advised not to contact this phone number. All requests from travel agencies and tour operators shall be sent exclusively via official communication channels, i.e. email.
The transfer arrival time for carrying out a transportation following the “hotel-airport” route shall be checked by consulting the company folder or the stand in the hotel lobby one day prior to the scheduled departure date (after 6:00 p.m.). In case the tourists experience problems with finding such information or have any questions, they shall contact the hotel guide or call the DMC’s hotline phone number.
The transfer bus route during the return transfer shall be determined by the DMC as well and depends on the hotels’ location with regard to the airport. Tourists shall treat other transfer members respectfully and show up for the transfer in time. In case the tourists are not present at the hotel reception desk, the DMC staff shall take measures for finding them. However, it is not allowed to wait for the tourists for more than 15 minutes since this can lead to the bus’s late arrival for other tourists and a delay in reaching the airport for the flight check-in. In Egypt, flight check-in starts 3 hours prior to the scheduled flight departure time.
In case the tourists have shown up at the meeting point in due time but have found no bus, they shall contact the hotel guide immediately or call the DMC’s hotline phone number.
Arrival in Egypt
In case of not finding their suitcase on the luggage claim belt, the tourists shall contact the “Lost & Found” staff where they will be asked to fill in a luggage lost report called the Property Irregularity Report (PIR). The document shall be filled in by the passengers or the airport staff in capital letters in the English language. The tourists shall take a copy of the report and keep it until the luggage return (or for filing a claim to the airline company in case the luggage is not found).
In Egypt, not depending on the city of arrival or on the airline company, there is no delivery of the retrieved luggage to the passenger’s place of accommodation. When the missing luggage is found, the tourist is contacted by the airport or the airline company’s staff and informed on the necessity to arrive at the airport to claim the luggage. Third parties, including the DMC’s staff, have no authority to claim the retrieved luggage instead of the tourists. The passenger in whose name the luggage is registered shall arrive at the airport in person. The tourists can go the airport on their own accord or contact the hotel guide with a request to help them arrange a transfer to the airport and back. The expenses related to such a transfer shall be borne by the tourists.
In case the luggage is found after the trip is over or is declared missing, the tourists are advised to remain in contact with the airline company’s representatives for the purpose of delivering the retrieved luggage or receiving a compensation for the lost luggage.
Example of a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) form:
