Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway Remove Travel Restrictions to Egypt’s South Sinai

14th February 2017

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People enjoy the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in the South Sinai governorate, about 550 km (342 miles) south of Cairo, July 12, 2012. Egypt expects to receive more than 12 million tourists by the end of 2012, a 23 percent rise over the previous year, the tourism minister said on July 17, 2012, adding that he did not expect the election of a new Islamist president to stifle the industry. Picture taken July 12. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: SOCIETY TRAVEL BUSINESS)

The Danish Embassy in Cairo issued a statement in which it announced that the travel restrictions will be removed starting 14 February.

According to Middle East News Agency, the Danish Embassy said in the statement that Denmark is no longer warning its nationals from visiting major touristic destinations in Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and Red Sea cities.

European countries and the US imposed restrictions on their nationals who are willing to travel to South Sinai in particular, after a Russian plane crashed in Sinai Peninsula in October 2015 shortly after it took off from Sharm Al-Sheikh airport.

Despite the crash that killed all 224 passengers and crew members on board, the incident didn’t have a significant negative impact on the Egyptian-Russian bilateral relations. However, direct flights between Cairo and Moscow have been suspended since then. The majority of European airlines have resumed direct flights to Cairo except for Russia and the United Kingdom.

The crash incident with its repercussions severely affected the tourism sector in Egypt that has already been suffering since the 25 January 2011 uprising.