It's a difficult and frustrating time for Egypt travel companies, whose businesses are feeling the effects of the Iran war, hundreds of miles from the epicenter of the conflict.
For example, half of customers slated to travel in March with Nubia Tours have canceled their trips, the company said, and the destination management company only expects that percentage to increase following inconsistent guidance from the U.S. State Department over travel to Egypt.
Vice managing director Radwa El Sayed and founder/CEO Haytham Atwan said they don't expect bookings to return to normal until after the summer.
On March 2, a post on X by the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs listed Egypt as a country Americans should leave due to the war. But the department did not follow up with additional warnings or guidance about Egypt travel, and it had not downgraded Egypt's travel advisory below Level 2, where it had been prior to the war.
Level 2 advises travelers to "exercise increased caution," and it's an advisory that's in place in many countries in Western Europe, including the U.K., France, Italy and Spain.
Parts of Egypt are under "do not travel" Level 4 guidance -- Northern and Middle Sinai as well as parts of the Western Desert -- but that warning has been in place for several years.
The X post was enough to cause traveler concern, sparking a flurry of cancellations.
El Sayed said travelers have been "quite confused" and that cancellations for March and April began rolling in after the State Department advised Americans to leave Egypt.
Egypt Direct Tours, a tour operator in Cairo, also reported a high volume of cancellations.
"The mixed messages from earlier this month have created a significant hurdle," said tourism manager Ahmed El Kadi.
Viking's reversal
That inconsistent messaging also affected Viking, which on March 3 canceled its March river sailings on the Nile. Two days later, the company said that it had reassessed the situation and reinstated cruises, starting with March 12 departures.
Viking said it reconsidered after monitoring the U.S.-Iran war and speaking with longtime ground operators in Egypt. Viking also said the current U.S. State Department travel advisory factored into its reversal.
"The official travel advisories have been clarified, and the current advisory for Egypt remains the same as it was prior to the start of the recent conflict," Viking said in a statement.
With eight ships in Egypt, Viking is the largest Western operator of Nile cruises.
El Kadi said that the combination of major players like Viking pausing and then reinstating operations as well as the State Department issuing statements at odds with the official advisory level "creates a wait-and-see atmosphere that is very difficult for local operators to manage."
Viking isn't alone. Other companies have canceled some Nile cruises that were scheduled to depart this month, including Tauck and Avalon Waterways. AmaWaterways did not cancel Nile cruises but dropped its extensions to Jordan and Dubai. Intrepid Travel, G Adventures and Globus are among the tour operators that have canceled Egypt land trips.
The Middle East catch-all
Egypt is often considered part of the Middle East, and this isn't the first time that the association has harmed the country's travel industry. Most recently, the Israel-Gaza war negatively affected tourism.
Malaka Hilton, an Egypt specialist and CEO of Admiral Travel International, said even though Egypt is more than 1,000 miles away from Iran, travelers are questioning their safety.
"We've got to be able to separate the headlines -- there's this fear effect when people view the Middle East all as one place," she said. "Egypt is open, and it is operating as normal."
Hilton added that it was disappointing to see operators canceling tours.
Amira Bixby of The Opulent Explorer in Chatham, N.J., called the confusion created by the State Department "a tragedy, because it does shake traveler confidence." Egypt is one of the destinations Bixby specializes in.
Both advisors said that the Egyptian people, many of whom rely on tourism for their living, will be the ones to suffer from cancellations and fewer visitors.
The disruption comes soon after the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo. The museum is a long-awaited $1 billion project that took 20 years to complete.
Bixby said that a year that was looking strong with the museum's opening has suffered a setback.
"They have been waiting so long for the [museum] to open," she said. "It finally opens. They finally have everything they've wanted in place."