Pharoh Exchange


Luxor Temple

By Jeremy Gates, Yorkshire Post
Published on Monday 12 December 2011 00:00


Tour operators and travel agents selling holidays in Egypt are stressing that renewed protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo, should not deter travellers from visiting other areas.

While the Foreign & Commonwealth Office is advising travellers to avoid the square and nearby parts of Cairo, it has no travel warning for the rest of the country.

Yet the number of visitors to Egypt in the second quarter of 2011 showed a massive plunge: some 2.2 million against 3.5 million in the same period of 2010. And large discounts are beginning to appear on holidays there on either side of the festive season....

Peter Kearns, managing director of Red Sea Holidays [stated] “The disturbances themselves are confined mainly to Cairo’s downtown area and Tahrir Square which, of course, should be avoided. But Cairo is a huge city and most tourist areas remain completely unaffected.”

“Far from deterring travel to Egypt, sales continue to come in.”

At rival operator Discover Egypt, Philip Breckner says: “We have not been using hotels in central Cairo for some time, and we house our clients in the outer areas of Giza and Heliopolis. Our tours are operating normally, though we take security advice on a daily basis.”

Longwood Holidays’ Alan Meadows says: “Confidence for Luxor has been returning in the last month, but with Cairo in the news like it is, bookings can be affected for other areas. But Egypt does bounce back quickly."