Jordan Times
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Sharm El Sheikh trips
cancelled
Jordanian travel and tour agencies scramble to make sure clients are well, bring
passengers back home
By Dalya Dajani
Local travel agencies were scrambling Saturday to make sure their clients
vacationing in Sharm El Sheikh were not hurt by three blasts that hit the
Egyptian resort early in the morning.
One agency said that by the evening it could not account for three of its
clients but this could be due to communication problems. The Jordanian embassy
in Cairo earlier announced that it was not informed of any Jordanian casualties
in the attacks.
Hundreds of Jordanian holidaymakers were vacationing at the tourist-packed Red
Sea resort where three explosions ripped through the area early Saturday. The
bomb blasts, which targeted a luxury hotel and beachside pedestrian walkway at
the height of the tourism season, killed at least 88 people and injured more
than 100 others.
Travel agencies said they were making contacts to make sure their clients were
safe despite the load on telecommunications network in the area and were making
arrangements to get vacationers back home.
One travel agency, which announced the cancellation of its two weekly flights to
the Red Sea resort, said it is waiting to bring back home around 100 Jordanians
as soon as airport clearance in the resort is available.
“The group is waiting until the airport authorities give approval for the
flight,” said the travel agency source who preferred not to be named, noting
that the vacationers were moved to a new location away from where the explosions
took place.
He added, however, that three Jordanians among them were missing.
“Their families have been calling the agency since Friday as they could not get
through to them due to the load on the phone lines,” he said.
“Our agent told us the three men had asked him for directions to a bar and that
he did not believe they were hurt as the bar was not in any of the targeted
locations,” he added.
Jordanian travel agencies, meanwhile, continued to announce flight cancellations
to the resort.
Operations officer at Holiday Travel Kareem Abdo said its four weekly flights to
Sharm El Shiekh were cancelled until the end of the season.
The chartered flights dispatched by Jordan Aviation and Royal Wings have a
200-passenger capacity each.
“We cancelled our flights to Sharm El Shiekh due to security fears, but many of
our clients maintained their vacation plans by shifting to other destinations
such as Marmaris beach resort and Cairo,” said Abdo.
Dallas Tours, which has 4-5 weekly chartered flights to the Red Sea resort also
cancelled their flights yesterday until further notice.
According to the agency's reservations officer Hani Abu Halawa, the group of 150
Jordanians who left to Sharm El Sheikh through the agency Friday afternoon were
confirmed safe.
Milano Tours office supervisor Saleem Al Khateeb, whose agency had 90 Jordanians
there, said it was not possible to bring back those who wanted to return
Saturday morning.
“We contacted our agent and it appears that only five want to come back home,
but they will have to wait until after 5:00pm, when airport authorities in Sharm
El Sheikh give their approval for our flight to land,” said Khatib.
Milano Tours, which charters four weekly flights to Sharm El Sheikh, said they
expect to lose some 200 passengers a week as a result of the attacks.
Very minimal diversions have been made to other luxury destinations considered
safe such as Laguna and Marmaris, which are not affordable for their clientele
base, he added.