LONDON: British travelers are flocking back to Egypt, The Times reported on Saturday.
Flight comparison platform Skyscanner reported a 53 percent spike in British searches for Egypt compared to 2019.
Online travel agency Travel Republic said its March bookings had surged by 163 percent — with 70 percent for five-star reports — compared to 2019.
Jacqueline Dobson, president of Barrhead Travel — which has over 85 high-street shops — said the number of Britons booking holidays to the resort towns of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh has doubled year-on-year, and Cairo is “really accelerating.”
She added: “Egypt is rising in popularity for a few different reasons. Firstly, the value on offer is extremely attractive — both in terms of the currency in destination as well as the value on offer when booking all-inclusive hotels, tours or cruises.
“Secondly, outside popular all-inclusive resorts such as Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, we are seeing fast-rising interest in touring and cruising, bookings into Cairo have quadrupled since last year, and river cruising on the Nile is something we’re repeatedly getting requests for.”
Part of this resurgent interest is down to the depreciating Egyptian pound. According to a survey of 40 destinations conducted by the Post Office, Sharm El-Sheikh ranked as the 10th best value destination for UK travelers.
British authorities banned flights to Sharm El-Sheik in November 2015 following the explosion of Russian-operated Metrojet Flight 9268 after takeoff, with investigators from Russia and other countries concluding it had been caused by a bomb. The ban was lifted in 2019.
