Tunisia has returned to the holiday map of British families only months after the Foreign Office lifted a ban on travel to the north African country.

Thomas Cook, one of the UK’s biggest tour operators, has said the sandy beaches are shaping up to be “the next winter success story”, after “strong” sales since its flights resumed in February - three years after the region was hit by a terror attack that left 38 dead, including 30 Britons.

Egypt and Turkey, too, both countries to have also suffered dwindling visitor numbers in recent years thanks to security concerns, are enjoying a resurgence, with the tour operator revealing bookings to Egypt are up 89 per cent year on year. Bookings to Turkey are up 84 per cent year on year, placing the European country as Thomas Cook’s third best-selling destination for summer 2018, behind only Spain and Greece.

Egypt's tourism resurgence has focussed away from Sharm el-Sheikh Credit: Getty

“For many - many more than you might expect - this summer is about a return to much-loved destinations that have been off the map in recent years,” said Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook CEO.

“Bookings to Turkey and Egypt are strongly up on last year and Tunisia, which only recently reopened to Brits, is selling well.”

Thomas Cook said online searches for flights to Tunisia increased 790 per cent on the day the first flights resumed.

At the time, Thomas Cook’s head of customer welfare Carol MacKenzie said the Tunisian government had “worked to improve its security and the way its police and security teams can respond to terrorist incidents”.

Much of the south and west of the country remains out of bounds to travellers, as advised by the Foreign Office, but the popular resorts on the Mediterranean coast have been crying out for the return of British holidaymakers.

Chris Leadbeater, who visited for Telegraph Travel in November, found a country primed for the return of British tourists, especially when it comes to visiting the majestic amphitheatre of El Djem.

“To cross its threshold is to tumble into the third century – into the din of gladiatorial sword-clash and the roar of lions in holding pens,” he wrote. “Three tiers of seats rise, and you can still go up, upon stairs that have sustained a million footsteps, to the top level, and peer down in awe. Again, I do this with little company – there are maybe 20 other visitors on a warm morning. I cast my mind back to my last trip to Rome, to the queues at the Colosseum – to the postcard touts and the thrust of selfie-sticks – and whisper to myself the sacrilege that, for breathless glimpses of the stadiums of ancient times, El Djem might well be the superior location.”

The prospects of Egypt are perhaps more surprising given that its key resort, Sharm el-Sheikh, remains off-limits to British tour operators.

Thomas Cook says its capacity in Egypt is nearly at 2015 levels

“Visitor numbers to the Red Sea are now close to where they were for Thomas Cook in 2015,” read the operator’s annual holiday report, “although centred entirely on Hurghada and Marsa Alam, which was introduced in February 2017 for the winter 2017/18 season.”

Turkey has closed the gap on Greece as the second most popular destination in Europe, behind Spain. “In fact, on strength of bookings so far, Turkey outsells mainland Spain and the Canary Islands combined, with Spain holding onto the number one spot with the inclusion of the ever popular Balearics,” read the report.

Stability has returned to Turkey following a serious of terror attacks in Istanbul and an attempted coup in 2016.