British Ambassador in Cairo: We want to return to Sharm El-Sheikh, the favorite destination of British tourists
By Akram Medhat - Travel Yalla journalist
Hisham Zaazou, Minister of Tourism, met a British government delegation including a large number of aviation and counter-terrorism experts, sent to Egypt on the instructions of the British Prime Minister to hold discussions with the Egyptian authorities as part of a joint plan to allow British flights to return to Sharm El-Sheikh as soon as possible, in the presence of the British Ambassador in Cairo, John Casson.
For his part, Zaazou stressed the importance of British tourism for Egypt, especially as Britain ranked second after Russia among the source countries of tourism to Egypt in 2014, noting that the number of British tourists in Egypt reached 905,713, who spent 9.5 tourist nights.
The Minister of Tourism welcomed the British delegation's visit to Egypt, hoping it would have a good effect in conveying the true picture of how things are going in Egypt.
For their part, the delegation conveyed during the meeting a message from British Prime Minister David Cameron that the United Kingdom will work actively and urgently, in coordination with the Egyptian authorities, to resume flights to Sharm El-Sheikh as soon as possible, and they welcomed the close and professional cooperation with the Egyptian authorities over the past two weeks to ensure the safety of travelers departing from Sharm El-Sheikh.
The delegation stressed the importance of the common interests between Britain and Egypt and their commitment to fruitful cooperation to confront common threats, adding that Egypt's stability is very important to the United Kingdom.
In a related context, British Ambassador in Cairo John Casson said: "We know very well how much the current circumstances affect the Egyptian economy. Britain was the first to suspend its flights to Sharm El-Sheikh, and we want to be the first to resume them as soon as possible, which is why most of Britain's senior aviation experts are in Egypt."
The British ambassador continued that the talks with the Egyptian side have shown encouraging progress on how to move forward in agreeing on a joint action plan in the coming days for the return of British flights as soon as possible.
Casson added that recent events have proven that every country must take every possible step to protect its citizens, and Britain is doing so, "but we must not allow anything to negatively affect our long-term economic partnership and our close security cooperation with Egypt."
The British delegation included Sir William Patey, the British Prime Minister's envoy for aviation security; Clive Wright, head of the international strategy team at the Department for Transport's aviation security division; Joanna West, director of protection and preparedness at the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism; Jonathan Allen, director of national security at the Foreign Office; and Tom Bell of the British Prime Minister's office. The delegation visited Cairo from November 17 to 19 to discuss aviation security and counter-terrorism issues and the resumption of flights to Sharm El-Sheikh.
