UK Tourists to Rely on Foreign Office Advice for Sharm El-Sheikh

British tourists are likely to trust Foreign Office’s judgment on security in Egypt's resort Sharm El-Sheikh and return there once concerns are dropped, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — Flights between the United Kingdom and Sharm el-Sheikh were suspended Wednesday amid fears that the Russian Airbus A321 plane, which crashed on Saturday minutes after its take-off from the city airport, was brought down by a bomb.

"One of the positive things of the Foreign Office advice to the travel industry is that they always take action if they have a concern about safety, and it is actually very reassuring for the British holidaymakers, so if the Foreign Office changes its advice on Sharm El-Sheikh travel, tourists will rely on that," an ABTA spokesperson said.

ABTA said flights would be suspended for as long as the Foreign Office "sees the security concerns."

The Unites Kingdom’s largest travel association estimates that there are around 20,000 British holidaymakers in the resort, including around 9,000 tourists staying on a package tour and thousands of independent tourists.

"The vast majority of [tourists] will finish their holidays, because the advice is not about the Sharm El-Sheikh resort, but Sharm El-Sheikh airport," the ABTA spokesperson pointed out.

UK consular staff in Sharm El-Sheikh have been advised to work with travel operators to look after Brits after flights out of the city were grounded overnight.