Zakaria made his comments during a press conference Friday at Cairo International Airport on the sidelines of the arrival of the first group of Chinese tourists since the coronavirus outbreak.

Zakaria revealed EgyptAir will resume its 13 weekly flights to China in March including three flights to Beijing, three to Hangzhou and seven to Guangzhou.

EgyptAir is also working on resuming flights to Shangai in the near future, he added.

He also revealed that EgyptAir received recently more than 1,200 requests from Chinese travel companies to organise tourist trips to Egypt via EgyptAir flights.

Earlier Friday, Cairo airport received a Sichuan Airlines flight from China’s Chengdu city with 137 passengers on board, including 28 tourists.

According to Cairo airport, all necessary measures have been taken to receive the Chinese tourists.

Around half a million Chinese tourists visited Egypt in 2018, according to the Asia Times website.

In 2016, in a move aimed to increase Chinese tourism to the country, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism determined that Chinese tourists who come through a tourist agency would not require a visa in advance of arrival.