Egypt will encourage tour operators in Germany, Italy and France to follow the UK sector’s lead as the country seeks to recover from three years of political instability and decline in tourism.
Tourism minister Hisham Zaazou will visit Europe next week but is not in the UK until at least October.
He praised both the UK market and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) this week, saying: “I thank the British government for its positive response throughout the last three years.
“There was no travel ban – only a ban at one point for Upper Egypt, and that was removed.”
Speaking at a World Tourism Organization conference on ‘Tourism Safety and Security in the Middle East’, Zaazou said the FCO policy on travel advisories “set an example to others”.
The FCO issued careful advisories over the past three years and advised only against travel to certain parts of Egypt, whereas Germany advised against all travel to Egypt – including the Red Sea resorts – following a military takeover last July.
Zaazou told Travel Weekly: “Britain did not start by issuing general travel advice overnight. Germany did that without consulting. But Britain did consult with us. They required additional measures from us, and that should be an example to others.
“I’m going to Germany, Italy and France because I have some good results for sun and sea product [from them] but we are not in a good position for cultural product. I’m going to discuss with tour operators how to work on this.”
Visitor numbers to Egypt remained 20% down overall year on year in the six months to June. But Zaazou said: “We have started to see an improvement. I can’t say yet if we are able to recover the loss or go beyond it, but we are moving upward.”