Egypt Protests - Travel Advice from Top UK Travel Agents

With the Egypt protests continuing and the Foreign Office continuing to advise against all but essential travel to affected areas including Cairo and Luxor, holidaymakers are looking elsewhere for a break.

We asked some of the UK’s top travel agents where else is popular and what they are recommending to their clients.

Chris Brown, Sunshine.co.uk managing director.

People who’ve had to cancel their winter trips to Egypt and Tunisia have been quick to book the Canaries instead. The flight time is about half an hour shorter, although the islands are a bit more expensive as they fall within the Eurozone. However, if it means guaranteed winter sun and safety, people are prepared to pay the extra.

As far as the summer is concerned Turkey will be the main beneficiary of the problems on Africa’s Mediterranean coast as it is in the region with similar product and prices are comparable. We’ve already seen Jet2.com cancel its entire summer flying programme to Tunisia and Hurghada and they’re going to want to send their planes somewhere else.

Oliver Broad, Robert Broad Travel director and Aito Specialist Travel Agents chairman.

“The Canaries are certainly doing well for people rebooking winter breaks but already prices are shooting up in the destination. People who had cultural trips planned such as a Nile cruise are still staying in the region – we rebooked one client to Petra in Jordan.

Our advice for those who have had to cancel and are hoping to rebook is not to waste a minute – the Royal Wedding bank holiday weekend is not far away and already driving up prices while availability at the top spots is rapidly disappearing.”

Gemma Antrobus, Haslemere Travel managing director.

“We’ve had a couple of clients who’ve had to rebook because of the Foreign Office advice. One of them is now going to Dubai as their booking was for half term with the kids and they just wanted to get away while the other is now going to Mauritius.

People have been quite happy to pay extra to go elsewhere as if they’ve planned a holiday and are taking the time off work then they don’t want to be disappointed. You don’t want to be stuck in dreary old Britain when you could be waterskiing in the sunshine.”