Three days after the deaths of two British holidaymakers in Egypt, Thomas Cook is moving all its customers from the hotel where they apparently fell fatally ill.
The firm will start to evacuate 301 guests from the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada, on the Red Sea coast, early on Friday morning.
In a statement, Thomas Cook called it “a precautionary measure”.
“While we understand this is upsetting for those on holiday, we believe this is the right thing to do,”
Susan and John Cooper died in Hurghada on Tuesday. The tour operator said: “The circumstances of their deaths are still unclear.”
But the statement added: “We have also received further reports of a raised level of illness among guests.”
The implication is that the couple may have succumbed to a virulent illness. It is highly unusual for a tour operator to evacuate a complete hotel.
Mr and Mrs Cooper were from Burnley in Lancashire. Susan Cooper was a long-serving employee of Thomas Cook at the firm’s Burnley branch.
The travel agency was closed all day on Thursday.
Thomas Cook is the UK’s leading tour operator to Egypt, and is believed to have between 1,000 and 2,000 British customers in Hurghada at present.
Around 400 are due to return on flights to Gatwick and Manchester on Friday evening, but Thomas Cook is also offering customers who are booked to stay longer the option to return early.
A larger aircraft will be deployed to and from Manchester in order to carry the extra passengers.
Thomas Cook customers with advance bookings in the next four weeks to stay at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic have been offered alternative accommodation at no extra charge.
The Steigenberger Aqua Magic is promoted as offering “five-star fun”, and features a water park and a private beach. The hotel is part of the well-regarded Steigenberger chain.
The firm is based in Germany but has a strong presence in Egypt, including four hotels in Hurghada.
Since the ban on flights by UK airlines to Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada has become the focus of British tourism to Egypt’s Red Sea shoreline.
The prohibition on flying to Sharm el Sheikh was imposed three years ago. It followed the apparent downing of a Russian charter flight by a bomb placed on board at the resort’s airport; 224 people died when a Metrojet flight to St Petersburg in Russia crashed in the Sinai desert.
Earlier in the summer, Thomas Cook said visitor numbers to Egypt had almost doubled this year compared with 2017.
