Visa Requirement Lifted For British People Visiting Egypt
When it comes to traveling to Egypt, many think of the amazing pyramids, the Sphinx, and other cultural landmarks of greatness. Oftentimes, the technicalities of actually getting there are overlooked. For the British people who love to see Egypt, this has been an issue since they put in place where the need for a travel visa is there.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s Reason to Remove Visa
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry as seen on Egypt Travel has chosen to remove the visa requirement for people coming from the United Kingdom. This is in an effort to help keep Egypt’s tourism from declining as it has been in a difficult state as of late. The British people make up a good majority of the visitors that Egypt receives, and they did not want to lose visitors as it would then lose money and badly effect Egypt’s economy.
It has been announced publicly that, starting on May 15th of this year, British visitors will no longer need to show a visitor’s visa in order to enter the country. There is currently a discussion in place for a new electronic system which would help Egypt to track the influx of visitors without causing them the inconvenience and financial headache of having to pay a high price for a visa and to wait in extremely long lines to get one.
In the past, when visitors came and wanted to get a visa, it wasn’t as much of a problem as it has become lately. Recently, unless the visitors are in a tour group, they cannot actually receive visas upon entry to the country. They have to go and see the consulate for the British people there in Egypt and it could take a while before any paperwork or progress is made.
Security Reason for Initial Ban
The reason that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry originally enacted the order to have visas for everyone that entered the country was to help boost the country’s security as there was much concern regarding terrorists trying to get in from surrounding countries. Now that Egypt is not in nearly as much of a bad situation as it was regarding this, and it is more secure, the ban is no longer as needed as it was in the past.
Egypt has seen much of its tourism evaporate in the past few years due to the ban, and this more than likely propelled the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, as seen on the Egyptian Government website, to go ahead and remove it. To put it in numbers, they were receiving about 15 million visitors back in 2010 versus a very low 10 million in 2014. That’s a loss of 5 million people that Egypt cannot afford to lose.
With the revocation of the ban in place and the requirements for entering the country having been lowered some for tourists, the hope is that Egypt’s fragile tourism industry will once again begin to bloom and that there will be many more people coming to visit in the near future. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry is looking forward to welcoming tourists with open arms from now on.
