Egypt – to sell or not to sell?

MIXED views in the
industry could cause
confusion as to
whether or not it is safe to
book your clients on trips to
Egypt. And what is your liability
as a travel agent?
Although the SA Department
of International Relations and
Cooperation has not issued
a travel advisory, up to 12
European countries as well as
the US have done so.
Germany, for example, most
recently updated its advisory
to include popular resort town
Sharm El Sheikh, which saw
thousands of German tourists
return to their home country.
This followed the bombing
in February of a bus carrying
tourists, in which two Korean
tourists and an Egyptian
citizen were killed.
In SA, EgyptAir posted a
paid-for statement on
Travelinfo on March 6 to say
that top tour operators were
“pro travel to Egypt”.
It mentioned 15 SA tour
operators and alleged that
they had conrmed via
telephonic survey that they
had “no issue with selling
Egypt as a holiday destination,
and they are not advising
against travel to Egypt”.
However, the majority of the
tour operators TNW contacted
from the list said they were
not actively promoting the
destination.
Ronel Coston, product
development manager of
Travel Vision, says she
packages Europe and the
Med regions with EgyptAir as
it offers good connections
with lower fares and taxes but
she hasn’t advertised Egypt
packages in a while as there
are no requests for it.
Should Travel Vision receive
a request, however, Ronel
says it will quote and not
advise against travel to Egypt.
“Sadly, our sales gures to
this destination have dropped
tremendously. It used to be a
top seller.”
Club Med has temporarily
closed its resort in Sinai Bay
since March 1 in line with
European travel advisories “to
safeguard the wellbeing of its
guests and employees”, says
md for South Africa, Stuart
de Bourgogne. He adds:
“Comment made on [Club
Med’s] behalf in EgyptAir’s
latest travel poll relating to
the endorsement of travel to
Egypt were inaccurate and
unauthorised.”
Dinesh Naidoo, owner of
Serendipity Tours, says his
company is selling Cairo as a
stopover for one-night stays or
transit day stop only.
“The Sinai area is our main
concern and we stopped
sending groups to this region
as this is the area where
tourists are attacked and
affected. This is Mount Sinai,
St Catherine’s and Taba. We
have not sold for a year now
and, even if the situation
calms down, personally I
won’t promote these sites as
I don’t want the security of
our clients to be at risk.”
Dinesh says if there is
a high security warning,
Serendipity advises clients
about it and also seeks the
advice of EgyptAir.
“Last year three of our
groups travelled during the
protests and the airline
assured me they would
protect the group. The ground
operators offered police
protection to the sites and the
group felt absolutely safe.”
Meanwhile, Mohamed
Nagdy, md of Sphinx Travel
and Tours, says the tour
operator is still marketing
Egypt, including Hurghada,
Sharm El Sheikh and a Nile
cruise in Luxor and Aswan.
“From 2011 until 2013 we’ve
had several groups travel
into Egypt; none of them
encountered any safety or
security issues.”
Ihab Seif, EgyptAir’s regional
gm for South Africa, told TNW
the major tourist destinations
in Egypt were situated at the
Red Sea, by the Nile, and in
the Western Desert.
These destinations,
including Sharm El Sheikh,
enjoy a “relaxing and peaceful
milieu,” he says.
“No other testimonial can
be more pragmatic and
truthful than the fact that
more than 30 million tourists
visited Egypt between 2011
and 2013, with 9,5 million of
them in the last year alone. In
the past three years [EgyptAir
has] achieved signicant
growth in passenger numbers
transporting thousands of
South Africans both to our
tourist destinations and
beyond on our worldwide
network. We are on target to
continue doing so in 2014.”
Get it in writing
Gareth Cremen, partner at
Ramsay Webber law rm in
Johannesburg, advises travel
agents get clients to sign an
indemnity indemnifying them
from any form of harm. He
says there is an obligation
on travel agents, wholesalers
and tour operators to notify
their clients of any activity
or facility that is subject
to any risk of an unusual
character or nature; risk of
which a consumer could not
reasonably be expected to
be aware; or risk that could
result in serious injury or
death.
 “It is good practice to
advise all clients of risks
involved. One cannot simply
trust airlines, operators, etc.
rather take the necessary
precautions and advise
travellers of the risk,”
he says.
As this issue was going to
press, travel insurers AIG and
TIC were not able to conrm if
travellers were covered when
travelling in Egypt.