Egypt - good cooperation between German federal government and travel industry

June 30, 2011 - PRLog -- In the last few days Egypt - with more than 80 million inhabitants the country with the largest population in the Arab region - has seen a political upheaval characterised by mass demonstrations and calls for a nation-wide strike.

The Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs and Tourism, Parliamentary State Secretary Ernst Burgbacher, said: "The security of German tourists has top priority for us. What we need now is calmness. The good cooperation between the German federal government and the travel industry, especially the German Travel Association (DRV), already proved its worth during the unrest in Tunesia. It was possible to fly all tourists out of the country within only a few days. In the case of Egypt the travel industry again reacted quickly and properly."

On 1 February 2011 the Federal Foreign Office's travel and security advice for Egypt was updated. According to the Office, tourists are urgently advised not to travel to the whole country due to the current developments and the unstable situation in Egypt. All tourists who have booked trips to Egypt with German tour operators are informed by these operators about the current situation in the country and asked to seriously reconsider their wish to visit the country right now. Tour operators will not organise any trips to Egypt at least until mid-February in order to avoid any unpredictable threats for their customers. Many tour operators accept rebooking and/or trip cancellation free of charge until end-February 2011.

At the time when the unrest in Egypt began about 35,000 German tourists were spending their holidays in Egypt. A total of more than 12.5 million foreign tourists visit Egypt every year. With more than 1.2 million tourists annually, Germany ranks third as country of origin behind Russia with about 2 million and the UK with more than 1.3 million tourists. Last year German tourists had a longer average stay in Egypt than visitors from any other country. As a result, we accounted for 10.7 percent of Egypt's total income from tourism. Tourism is an important economic sector for Egypt; at slightly less than 11 billion US dollars, it is the country's third most important source of foreign currency.

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