UK Maintains Flight Ban on Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh Airport

UK Maintains Flight Ban on Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh Airport

Egypt’s tourism revenues were hard hit by a travel ban on its popular winter sun destination of Sharm el-Sheikh, which continues to be maintained by the UK.

A charm offensive has been launched by Egyptian authorities to highlight the attractions of other Red Sea resorts since the UK banned its airlines to land in Sharm el-Sheikh in the wake of the crash of a Russian charter jet in the Sinai Desert in November 2015.

The British Government has refused to lift the ban on flights to  despite recommendations from its own cross-party parliamentary group on Egypt that it should, despite the millions of pounds of security investment from Egyptian authorities, and despite an apparent understanding from the Department of Transport that it would be safe to lift the ban.

Egyptian tourism authorities continue to voice hope that the British government will lift the ban soon. Egypt’s tourism minister, Mohamed Yehia Rashed told Telegraph Travel that he “would definitely address the British authorities to look into the decision because it is no longer valid. People are in Sharm, hundreds of thousands and millions, so it’s about time to revisit the decision.”

Britons accounted for a large proportion of tourists to Egypt, especially to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

Egypt’s tourism revenues jumped by 170 percent in the first seven months of 2017, reaching $3.5 billion.

The number of tourists visiting Egypt rose by 54 percent in the same seven-month period on an annual basis to reach 4.3 million.

That number is still well below the 14.7 million who visited Egypt in 2010, ahead of the 2011 uprising.

Egypt hopes the number of tourists will reach 8 million in the whole of 2017, up from 4.5 million last year.

 

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