For many years, the country of Egypt was a favoured holiday destination among tourists. But in recent years, a number of terrorist attacks shook up the country, leading to a rapid decline in the number of tourists.
But at an equally rapid pace, the country managed to regain the trust of the tourists. Because of this, many travellers still travel to Egypt each year. The World Tourism Forum has selected Egypt as its role model for overcoming a tourist crisis.
Egypt grabbed opportunities
At a recent meeting of the World Tourism forum, Egypt was chosen as a role model for overcoming a crisis in the tourist sector of a country. The improvements to the safety in the country were highlighted, as well as heavily investing in the tourist sector and making it more attractive to the average tourist.
The Egyptian minister of tourism, Rania al-Mushat had explained during the forum how Egypt managed to rebuild its tourist sector in recent year, after the terrorist attacks in its popular resorts. Mashat indicated that Egypt managed to overcome these problems, in part because the government started supporting the private sector more.
In this, Egypt made full use of opportunities that lay in improving lines of communication between the private sector and the government. The minister also stated that the government didn’t just overcome the crisis in the tourist sector, but also started building and developing the safety of the country. Despite these additional safety measures, the online Egypt visa is still available for travellers from a variety of different countries, including the UK.
Egypt becoming safer
More and more tourists are considering Egypt as being safe again, according to the minister of tourism. This reflects in the number of tourists travelling to Egypt, which has been steadily growing over the past few years. In line with the additional safety measures, it is mandatory to apply for an Egypt visa if you wish to travel to Egypt. As it is a digital visa rather than a physical one, it can be applied for online, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The costs for an Egypt visa are £54.95 per person.
Egypt has consistently scored high on national safety. Several surveys have shown that Egypt is the safest country in Africa. In fact, according to a poll of Gallup Global Lae and Order, the country might even be safer than both the United States and the United Kingdom. The World Tourism Forum was held in Lucerne, Switzerland. More than 500 ministers, experts in tourism, investors and policy makers gathered to discuss tourism in various countries in the world.
Egypt safer: visa mandatory for British travellers
To guarantee its domestic safety, travellers headed to Egypt need to apply for an Egypt visa. This includes British travellers. For British travellers, a British Citizen passport is required. Any other passports are required to go to the Egyptian consulate in London.
The visa requirement does not just apply to adult travellers, but children as well. Children travelling along must possess their own Egypt visa. Only if all travellers possess a valid visa will they be allowed to enter the country.
Egypt has different visa types. These include visas for tourism, business trips, work visas or emigration visas. However, most of these are physical visa, meaning you need to visit the Egyptian consulate to acquire one. The only one that can be applied for entirely online is the tourist visa. As most travellers go to Egypt on a holiday, this makes the online tourist visa the most popular Egyptian visa.
The Egyptian visa comes in single and multiple entry forms. As the name suggests, a single entry visa can only be used to enter the country once. This means that if you leave the country before your visa expires, you won’t be able to country again, regardless if your visa is still valid. To circumvent this, a multiple-entry visa can be applied for. This allows you to enter and leave the country as often as you like, as long as the visa is valid.
Rules surrounding applying for an Egypt visa
A number of rules are tied to usage of the Egypt visa. During the application, it will be closely monitored whether these requirements are met.
Firstly, each traveller applying for a visa needs to possess a passport. This holds for both adults as well as minors. As a child, you are not allowed to be included in the passport of your parents. Emergency passports, ID cards or residence documents are not allowed.
If family or friends are being visited, a letter of invitation needs to be provided. On arrival, you will often also be asked for an itinerary. Make on in advance. If you are travelling as a group, you need to submit a group application. The visa is valid for 90 days. You are allowed to stay in Egypt for a maximum of 30 consecutive days.
Egypt visa application
The Egypt visa can be applied for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The passport information must be kept at hand. If you have been to Egypt before, the dates of arrival and departure of this previous trip need to be filled in. We recommend applying for the visa before the flight ticket has been booked. Granting of the visa takes places 30 days before arrival.
In urgent need of an Egypt visa?
It is advised to apply for a visa at least seven days before departure. Leaving for Egypt in less than week and forgot to apply for an Egypt visa? Even if you apply, your visa likely won’t arrive on time, and you won’t be allowed to enter the country by the immigration service in Egypt. This can be circumvented by submitting an urgent application. A visa will then generally be granted within two to five workdays. However, no absolute guarantees can be provided.
Please note: this news article about the visa for Egypt is more than one year old. It might contain outdated information and advice, and no rights can therefore be derived from this article. Are you going on a trip soon and do you wish to do know what rules currently apply? Read all about the up-to-date information about the visa for Egypt.