Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt, which have all seen huge dropoffs in tourism over terrorism concerns in recent years, are now seeing business rise again, and sharply.
Turkey’s big nosedive was in 2016, with some recovery in 2017. But with cruise lines returning, including some to Istanbul and package sellers pushing the area, bookings so far this year are up by 84%, and is outselling Spain for the first time in years.
Egypt’s bookings are at their highest since 2011, according to Thomas Cook’s Holiday Report, up 89% from last year, even with no direct flights returning yet to its Sharm el Sheikh resort area. Travelers use an airport 300km to the south.
In Tunisia, where a terror attack in 2015 on a beach put a quick end to business and brought a British government warning against travel, business has been healthy enough for Thomas Cook to schedule 11 flights a week. The ban for travel by Brits was lifted last July.
Overall, for British travelers, Cook reports, the top five destinations are Spain, Greece, Turkey, the US and the Caribbean. But Spain is only on top if the Balearics are included, and Turkey is inching up on Greece, so next year’s rankings could look a bit different.
The Canary Isles are an all year Spanish hot spot – located off the coast of Africa.
Perfect for a Christmas Vacation too !
The report I took figures from made that distinction, likely because some sources report report figures separately for Balearics and Canaries. In that light, I thought it useful to mention.
Since the context was the thin margin for Spain over Greece, I will venture a guess that separating Greece’s islands from the mainland would drastically alter the rankings.
I find “…Spain is only on top if the Balearics are included…” an odd addition, not unlike saying the US is only on top if Hawaii is included. Am I missing something?
Then it seems to me they’re making highly dubious distinctions, bending the numbers to suit their purposes, whatever they may be.