Adventure specialist Explore has cancelled all tours to Egypt for the rest of the year.
The tour operator said it was to give customers certainty about their holidays and allow them time to re-book before availability and price are a concern.
Customers booked on Egyptian tours due to depart up the December 31 were offered a full refund or 5% off an alternate booking.
Bookings are still open for Egyptian tours with Explore in January and February but any clients booked beyond December can still transfer to another destination free of charge.
Product and operations director, John Telfer said a decision would be made on tours post December in a month’s time.
Explore’s itineraries are not purely Red Sea resorts and currently the UK Foreign Office is advising against all but essential travel to most of Egypt, apart from the Red Sea resorts.
Telfer added: "The vast majority of clients were happy we have made the decision in good time for them to rearrange. Clients want some certainty that it is going to happen which is one of the reasons that we need to make the decision about cancellation about three months in advance.
"Cancelling until the end of December is a clean psychological break – it gets rid of Christmas and the New Year. I’m very happy with the decision we’ve made."
He added that Oman and particularly Jordan had benefitted from the situation in Egypt with many clients re-booking there.
He said: "Egypt is usually the introductory holiday into that part of the world."
