Egypt to spend £26m on X-ray machines and CCTV cameras at tourist resorts

Hisham Zaazou, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, told Telegraph Travel that public security camera numbers at Sharm el-Sheikh will be doubled from around 100. He admitted that hotel occupancy was “extremely bad” – around 15 per cent – at the Red Sea complex, which is currently off limits to Britons following the crash last October of a Russian aeroplane that had taken off from the resort.

He said the security plan also included “sniffer dogs in resorts, and training for local staff,” and hotels’ surveillance camera networks linked up to government CCTV control rooms.

Mr Zaazou said that archaeological sites would also see new security installations. There is another 50 million Egyptian pounds – around £4.5 million – earmarked for the ancient temples at Luxor, which was targeted by an attempted suicide bomber attack in June last year. This brings to the total spend on security up to around £26m, according to Mr Zaazou.

The Egyptian government is in “serious negotiations” with a Saudi Arabian investor to build a new multi-million pound resort, part of a $1 billion plan for new complexes on the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.

British holidaymakers “should feel safe in Egypt”, he insisted, a message he has reiterated to the UK government. “I would encourage the British to come back, we are trying to tell the UK government – I am always in close contact with the British ambassador in Cairo.”

• Is Egypt safe?

He insisted the measures would not make visitors feel overly-guarded. “We are not doing it in a way that makes it seem like you are entering into an army field. We are trying to strike a balance between assuring the security level that would make a holidaymaker choose Egypt, and at the same time not in a way that would hamper the vacation.”

The installations will come after three tourists were injured in a knife assault in the tourist resort of Hurghada and an Isil-claimed attack saw pellet guns shot at a hotel and guest bus near the Giza pyramids last week.

No tourists were killed in these incidents, which Mr Zaazou dismissed as “amateurish”, but they are likely to further deter potential visitors already shocked by the Sharm el-Sheikh crash.

Telegraph Travel understands that Egyptian officials are due to send the British Ministry of Transport a notice urging them to lift travel advisories for Sharm el-Sheikh airport, and allow UK flights to land there again.

The communication is understood to be due at the end of January, as officials finish safety investigations at Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Its security was questioned after the crash last October of a Russian passenger jet that had taken off from the resort, killing all 224 people on board, prompting many European governments to cancel flights. Isil said it was responsible for a bomb placed on the plane, but official assessments have not yet concluded.

Egyptian authorities have reason to boost tourist numbers again as soon as possible – foreign travel warnings and the cessation of flights into Sharm el-Sheikh are estimated to be costing the economy between US $280-300 million a month.

Indeed, the latest incidents are a blow to an industry that had already suffered from five years of political and security instability.

The number of UK tourists to Egypt fell from 1.5 million in 2010 to 900,000 in 2014, as travellers eschewed its beaches and ancient sites for destinations they considered more secure.

Egyptian authorities have spent millions on multiple advertising campaigns in attempts to lure tourists back from around the globe. Khaled Ramy, the former tourism minister, said in March last year that the country hoped to attract 20 million visitors a year by 2020, up from a low of 9.8 million in 2014. He said that security at Sharm el-Sheikh was so tight that “not a rat from the desert” could enter the resort – just months before the disastrous Russian plane crash.

Egypt has hired an outside security firm called Control Risks to assess its airports in the hope that European governments will lift the ban on flights and hopes to achieve “the gold standard in all our airports,” according to Mr Zaazou.

Various parts of Egypt were placed off limits to tourists during the 2011 revolution that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak, while the coup that brought current leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power was surrounded by further insecurity and tension.

Jihadi groups in the Sinai peninsula continue to pose a threat to Egyptians and tourists, attacking a bus at the coastal resort of Taba in 2014, killing four people, while the Western Desert region was placed off limits to tourists because of bandits and the porous border with Libya, where Isil is known to operate.