Between two and three thousand tourists are expected to come to Cape Verde between February and September of this year as a direct result of the current unrest in Egypt. Cape Verde is the second most frequent destination, after the Canary Islands, to which European tourists with vacations scheduled for the North African country have been redirected in the wake of the conflicts there.

The first group of “detoured” tourists arrived this week on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista, hailing from various European countries. In the coming days, many more are expected to disembark at Amílcar Cabral and Rabil International Airports on the two islands.

With the unrest that has taken hold of Egypt over the past several weeks, tourists and travel agencies have been forced to re-program vacation packages purchased for the destination. Cape Verde appears in second place, following Spain’s Canary Islands, among the destinations most chosen as alternatives for tourists who had been intending to travel to Egypt.

This change in destination benefits the tourism sector in Cape Verde, but will require some reformulating in hotel scheduled and other services connected to the tourism sector.