Thomas Cook counts the £20m cost of troubles in Africa

The group said that while Government travel advice on Tunisia has improved, restrictions to Egypt are ongoing for all but the Red Sea resorts amid escalating anti-government protests.

Riots on the streets of Tunisia last month forced 3,000 British citizens to return home, while the uprising in Egypt has prompted the Foreign Office to advise against all non-essential travel to cities such as Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suez.

Thomas Cook, which takes around a million holidaymakers to Egypt each year, hopes to offset the impact by offering more holidays to alternative destinations such as Greece and Spain.

Thomas Cook’s chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: “We have got nine months to go in our financial year and we have got plenty of time to recover the £20m and mitigate that impact.”

In the last four weeks, Mr Fontenla-Novoa said bookings to Greece were up 20 per cent while bookings to the Balearic Islands have risen by 30 per cent. “The two destinations which are benefiting the most from these troubles are Spain and Greece,” he said.

“The main beneficiary is Spain, in particular the Canary and Balearic Islands. The second destination is Greece which is seeing a big comeback,” he said.

Larger rival TUI Travel, which owns Thomson Holidays, said last week that the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia could wipe up to £30m off its profits after it cancelled trips to the two countries.

KBC Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram said: “As with TUI Travel, Thomas Cook is showing good underlying resilience and its exposure to strong continental European source markets should prove to be a positive.”