The move by the UK government followed increasing concerns that a bomb was responsible for the downing of Russian Metrojet flight 9268, which crashed last Saturday killing all 224 people onboard.
The UK government resumed flights from Sharm on November 5, with airlines slowly starting to bring home some of the 20,000 stranded British tourists.
However, as TTG went to press, thousands were still in the resort, with agents warning that the continued press attention was likely to further hamper winter demand for the region.
Nick Harding, owner of Balham-based Travel Designers said he believed Egypt was “dead in the water”.
“I won’t be recommending it for clients – you just don’t know what’s going to happen there,” he said.
“We had a lot of clients in the summer who already didn’t want to go near North Africa or Turkey after what happened in Tunisia, and this will have just made things worse.
“Even if the FCO lifted its advice for Egypt and Tunisia, I don’t think people would go there,” he added. “They would have to show a real credible improvement to airport security to make people consider it.”
Andrew Earle, owner of Andrew Earles Holidays, said he had a client due to fly out to Sharm on January 7, who was now desperate to cancel.
“She desperately doesn’t want to go, but she can’t do anything about it. It’s difficult – we feel for the client, but we understand operators need to think about their business too.
“I wouldn’t say this is 100% fatal to Egypt because some people will still go out there,” Earle said, but added that he was focusing on advertising “safe” destinations to clients, including Malta, Croatia and the Canaries. “We’re really pushing cruise and the US as well.”
Meanwhile Anneka Bones, travel consultant at Rye-based Southern Cross Travel, said she had noticed a general drop-off in Egypt enquiries this year. “Sharm has always been an area that we’ve sold a bit of, but we haven’t had many sales there.
“People do sometimes have short memories, but Sharm will be off the cards for most people now. It will take a good few months to recover.”
Newells Travel owner Roger Hawke said that the two pairs of clients he had in resort when the problems occurred had continued to enjoy their holiday and would return as planned this week.
“When [airlines] start flying again to Sharm then customers will go back. People are resilient,” he added.
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