NEWS — HOT STORIES 4
Egypt urges European operators to follow the FCO’s example on travel advisories
Organization conference on ‘Tourism Safety and Security in the Middle East’, Zaazou said the FCO policy on travel advisories “set an example to others”. The FCO issued careful advisories over the past
three years and advised only against travel to certain parts of Egypt, whereas Germany advised against all travel to Egypt – including the Red Sea resorts – following a military takeover last July. Zaazou told Travel Weekly: “Britain did not start by issuing general travel advice overnight. Germany did that without consulting. But Britain did consult with us. They required additional measures from us, and that should be an example to others. “I’m going to Germany, Italy and France because
Ian Taylor
Egypt will encourage tour operators in Germany, Italy and France to follow the UK sector’s lead as the country seeks to recover from three years of political instability and decline in tourism. Tourism minister Hisham Zaazou will visit Europe
next week but is not in the UK until at least October. He praised both the UK market and the Foreign
& Commonwealth Office (FCO) this week, saying: “I thank the British government for its positive response throughout the last three years. “There was no travel ban – only a ban at one point for Upper Egypt, and that was removed.” Speaking at a World Tourism
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I have some good results for sun and sea product [from them] but we are not in a good position for
“I thank the British government for its positive response throughout”
cultural product. I’m going to discuss with tour operators how to work on this.” Visitor numbers to Egypt remained 20% down
overall year on year in the six months to June. But Zaazou said: “We have started to see an improvement. I can’t say yet if we are able to recover the loss or go beyond it, but we are moving upward.”
Loveholidays secures Blastland’s expertise Lucy Huxley
“Thomson would love that,” Blastland said.
Former Tui Travel managing director Dermot Blastland is to join online travel agent Loveholidays as a non-executive director. The role follows a similar stint for Blastland at On The Beach, which secured a £73 million buyout by private equity firm Inflexion in 2013. Blastland said he was approached
by Loveholidays for his extensive travel industry knowledge and online retail experience. Loveholidays, set up two-and-a-
half years ago, has “aggressive growth plans”, according to Blastland. He said the company, which is headed by managing director Alex Francis, turns over more than £70 million, is profitable and has a repeat customer rate just shy of 20%.
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travelweekly.co.uk — 18 September 2014
“You can keep spending on pay per click, but the important thing is to keep getting those customers to repeat purchase with you. “It’s very reminiscent of On The Beach. Loveholidays’ site is more upmarket and it’s doing really well in a very short time and getting quite big. Like Thomson, Loveholidays provides a search facility based on numerous factors but offers a wider range of product, he added. Loveholidays has
lastminute.com
founder Brent Hoberman as chairman of its advisory board and Hays Travel managing director John Hays on its board. Hays provides Loveholidays’ Atol licence as
well as its call centre and customer service functions. Loveholidays is also seeking an experienced financial non-executive board member.
MORE HOT STORIES
Egypt has seen a 20% decline in visitors
“It’s doing
really well in a very short time and getting quite big”
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