Red Sea Holidays is expanding into Greece and Turkey for Summer 2016 following the forced suspension of flights between the UK and the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh, one of its key destinations.
For this year it has added the Greek islands of Corfu, Crete and Rhodes and Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey to its programme.
“Launching new Mediterranean destinations is the next step of our ambitious strategic growth plan,” said Red Sea Holidays’ Jason Hilton.
“We’re delighted to be offering two new countries with an excellent variety of holidays for families, couples and groups alike – all carefully selected by our experienced team.”
The operator is planning to add the Greek islands of Zante and Kos plus Spain and the Canary Islands later this year.
Previously the operator featured only holidays to the Red Sea and Nile Cruises, but the UK government ordered the suspension of passenger flights to Sharm, one of its top destinations, two months ago after it was discovered that a bomb that brought down a Russian charter flight had been smuggled onboard at the airport.
The Government has yet to tell operators when they can resume flying to Sharm.
A spokeswoman for Red Sea Holidays said the company had planned to expand into the Mediterranean prior to the suspension of flights to Egypt. It added Tunisia in 2015, to which holidays have since been suspended following the massacre of tourists on a beach in Sousse last summer.
Red Sea Holidays continues to sell holidays to Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Makadi Bay, Sahl Hasheesh, El Gouna and Luxor in Egypt, said the spokeswoman.
It is part of the Red Sea Group in Egypt, which also owns ETI – Express Travel International – a tour operator in Germany, Austria and Swizterland which offers holidays to Greece and Turkey as well as to Egypt.
Red Sea Holidays said it will be working closely with the Turkish Culture and Information Office, she said, to offer agent educationals throughout the summer.
