Brit holidaymakers are being lured back to terror hotspots by cheap deals despite attack warnings
Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia have all seen a spike in bookings recently as holidaymakers seek out a low cost few days in the sun
BRITS are flying back to North Africa for cheap holidays despite heightened security warnings still being in place.
Egypt, Tunisia and Middle Eastern Turkey have all seen a spike in bookings recently as holidaymakers seek out a low cost few days in the sun.
Hotels are cheaper than in Spain, which had become more popular because of the unrest in other parts of the world.
Thomas Cook said Spain remained its top destination, followed by Greece, Turkey, the USA and the West Indies.
But the gap between Greece and Turkey has got smaller despite terror attacks in the Middle Eastern country.
Package holiday bookings to Turkey are up 84% year-on-year while demand for Egypt has risen 89%, the firm said in its annual Holiday Report.
The growth is driven by families, who make up 61 per cent of bookings to Turkey and 51 per cent to Egypt.
And the previous North African favourites of Tunisia and Egypt have also seen a resurgence in visitors despite a number of deadly attacks in the last three years.
In June 2015 jihadi Seifeddine Rezgui shot 38 holidaymakers dead – 30 of whom were British - in the beach resort of Sousse in Tunisia
Deadly list of terror attacks in holiday hotspots
July 2005: 88 people die after car bombs exploded in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
April 2011: 16 die in an explosion at a tourist café in Marrakech
March 2015: 20 killed by gunmen in the Bardo National Museum, Tunisia
June 2015: 38 holiday makers are shot dead in the resort of Sousse, Tunisia
October 2015: A Russian passenger plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh was taken down by a bomb on
board, killing all 224 passengers
January 2016: Eight German tourists are killed by a suicide bomber in Istanbul
August 2017: Two killed and three wounded in an attack at the tourist attraction Deir el-Bahri, Egypt
And just three months before that, 22 people were slaughtered in the Bardo National Museum attack in Tunis leading to the Foreign Office to warn against all travel.
On Halloween 2015 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh an IS terror attack in 2015 killed all 224 people on board a Russian passenger jet, decimating the tourist trade there.
The UK still advises against all but essential travel by air to Sharm el-Sheikh but visitors are returning to the Red Sea in numbers nearing those of 2015.
But holidaymakers are opting for Hurghada and Marsa Alam over the old favourite of Sharm el-Sheikh
Thomas Cook said: “The nation’s appetite for sunshine at a fair price fuels demand to revisit these old favourites.”
More than 319,000 British nationals visited Egypt last year despite Foreign Fffice warnings of a “heightened risk of aviation terrorism”.
It also warns that “terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks” in Turkey and Tunisia, the latter of which is still in a state of emergency.
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Chris Mottershead, managing director of Thomas Cook UK, said: "So far this summer, Turkey is the standout destination for British holidaymakers.
"We are seeing substantial growth in bookings compared to last year.
"With just one week to go until the summer holiday season officially begins, Egypt and Tunisia are also selling well, with price and quality driving a return to these much-loved destinations."
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