Egypt's tourism drought

The country suffered its worst September ever in terms of visits from international tourists, with a 90 per cent year-on-year drop in numbers compared to September 2012.

Last July, violence that followed mass sit-ins in Cairo prompted the Foreign Office (FO) to warn against travel to most of the country.

Other European countries followed suit, which proved “devastating” to Egypt’s visitor numbers, according to Hisham Zaazou, the country’s tourism minister.

Europe, with its 73 per cent share of Egypt’s tourism market, became a “tap that had closed”, forcing the minister to spend October and November trying to get the bans lifted.

The “generic” advice, interpreted as a broad ban on travel, was not fair, he told journalists at a press conference on Wednesday. “They did not have a specific approach to it and that hurt us a lot.”

The FO lifted the restrictions on travel to Luxor and the south, plus Cairo and the pyramids in November.

There have been no incidents targeting tourists in Egypt in three years, Mr Zaazou said, describing current tension as an Egyptian – Egyptian issue.