Sources at the Egyptian Travel Agencies Association (ETAA) said that the association refused an offer from the Arab Orient Takaful Insurance to cover the risk of non-payment of airline tickets. He added that the association still has valid contracts with the Egyptian Takaful Company and the Arab Misr Insurance Group (GIG). He expected the association to negotiate with more insurance companies by the end of this year to provide the needed coverage starting from 2018, to bring the number of insurance companies providing this coverage to four companies. He pointed out that the number of tourism companies bringing in international tourists in the past two years has significantly declined amid the bad circumstances of the Egyptian tourism sector, following Britain and Russia halting their flights to Egyptian destinations. The number of Egyptians participating in Umrah in the past season amounted to 1.2m, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Source: Daily News Egypt March 02, 2017 08:15 UTC