Brits are returning to holiday ‘terror attack’ hotspots despite danger warnings

Brits are jetting back to ­Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia for their holidays, despite heightened security warnings still being in place.

Cheaper prices are helping to fuel a surge in bookings to the eastern Mediterranean and strife-torn North Africa.

Hotel bills are lower than those in Spain, where visits had spiked because of the unrest elsewhere.

Tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed Spain is its top destination, followed by Greece, Turkey, the US and the Caribbean.

But the gap has narrowed between Greece and Turkey, despite the latter suffering deadly attacks by Islamic extremists.

An assault in Sousse in Tunisia in June 2015 by Seifeddine Rezgui left 38 holidaymakers dead – 30 of whom were British.

Three months earlier, 22 people died in the Bardo National Museum attack in Tunis. It led the Foreign Office to warn against all travel.

In Egypt, the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh became a ghost town after an IS terror attack in 2015 killed all 224 people on board a Russian passenger jet.

The UK still advises against all but essential travel by air to Sharm el-Sheikh. However, visitor numbers to the Red Sea are close to where they were in 2015, with getaways now centred on the resorts of Hurghada and Marsa Alam.

Thomas Cook said: “The nation’s appetite for sunshine at a fair price fuels demand to revisit these old favourites.”

Package bookings to Turkey are up 84% year-on-year while demand for Egypt is up 89%.

Families make up 61% of bookings to Turkey, 51% to Egypt and 44% to Tunisia, where holidays are “selling well”, Thomas Cook said in its annual report.

The company became the first to resume Tunisian trips for UK tourists in February, after the Foreign Office eased travel advice.

Chris Mottershead, managing director of Thomas Cook UK, said: “Price and quality are driving the return.”

Flights from London Gatwick to Antalya in Turkey one way can cost just £62.99 per person.

Seven nights’ all-inclusive in Hurghada, staying in a four-star hotel, is priced from £630pp.

Despite the “heightened risk of terrorism against aviation” in Egypt, more than 319,000 British nationals visited last year.

The Foreign Office also warns that “terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks” in Turkey and Tunisia.

A state of emergency is in effect in the North African country and it was extended last month by seven months.

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