UK Travellers Heading Back to Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt

Tourists from the UK are heading back to favourite holiday destinations that until recently were considered by many to be at risk of unrest or terrorism, according to the latest findings from a major survey which predicts future travel patterns by analysing booking transactions by travel agents

The big winners are Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt, although the two Arab countries have yet to recover their full potential.

Turkey with the biggest market share of the three, is showing a 66.4 per cent growth in UK leisure bookings on last year; Egypt is ahead 50.9 per cent, and Tunisia – with a 0.7 per cent share – is ahead 901.0 per cent.

The survey was conducted by flight bookings analyst ForwardKeys and market research company GfK. ForwardKeys CEO and co-founder, Olivier Jager, said: “These findings illustrate the ultimate resilience of travel and tourism.

“Tourists are prepared to reassess their impressions of a destination if it manages to remain safe for an extended period of time. It’s encouraging that the countries previously affected by unrest are seeing their tourist marketing efforts pay off in hard figures.”

David Hope, Senior Client Insight Director, GfK market research, said: “The growth is driven by the dynamism of short and mid haul summer destinations, up by 7.7 per cent. These destinations represent around 60 per cent of British international travel in the summer period.

“British tourists are flocking back to Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt, after the security incidents in 2015 and 2016. Spain and Portugal will see slightly fewer tourists, while other European destinations, including Greece, Croatia and Bulgaria, maintain an optimistic outlook.

“The full recovery of North African destinations will require some time. This summer, the scheduled air capacity will be only half of what it was in 2015 for Tunisia and Egypt.”

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