The World Travel and Tourism Council has said that Egypt loses about EGP 31 million daily and EGP 1 billion monthly, because of its insertion on the UK red list, which stops British tourism to Egypt.

WTTC warned of the economic consequences and said that it is a serious threat to the already crippled tourism and travel sector in Egypt.

Under the red list rules each traveller from Egypt to the UK has to spend 10 days in a quarantine hotel, as well as pay for PCRs. The UK explained that this is to prevent new COVID-19 variants from entering.

The council urged the Egyptian government to intensify its mass vaccination programme against COVID-19, which could allow the tourism and travel sector to recover. According to the Central Bank of Egypt, tourism revenues declined over the first nine months of the fiscal year 2020/2021 to $3.1 billion compared to $9.6 billion over the same period of 2019/2020.