On Wednesday, when the U.S. State Department replaced its Egypt Travel Warning with a milder Travel Alert, the travel industry let out a huge collective sigh of relief and tour operators prepared to resume full operations to Egypt.

The change in Egypt did not come about overnight because of a change of status by the U.S. State Department, but the downgrading of the warning is a symbolic act of great importance to the industry, signaling the U.S. government’s official recognition that the danger of the political turmoil surrounding the ousting of Egypt’s President Morsi last summer has diminished.

There are other reasons for optimism beyond the lifting of the warning. Acting Egyptian officials completed a new constitution with new articles to address problems that arose during its first attempt to establish a democratic government.

The country will hold a referendum on the new constitution in January and will vote for its new parliament and president in the following months. The new constitution has stipulations designed to prevent a future president from governing on behalf of one sect rather than for the whole country, which was what drove many of the millions who demonstrated against former President Morsi to Tahrir Square.

Egypt is not yet completely in the clear, however. The State Department still has an alert in place, warning that political unrest “is likely to continue in the near future.”

But it also acknowledges that the political violence during the periods of turmoil was confined to a limited area, which did not include the standard tourist areas for Americans.

According to the State Department bulletin, “While most violent protests have occurred in major metropolitan areas, including downtown Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and Port Said, there are recent reports of more widespread political and social violence, including armed attacks, in other areas of Egypt, especially the Sinai.”

The tourist areas, including the Great Pyramids at Giza and other monuments and antiquities at Luxor, Karnak, Aswan, Edfu, Abu Simbel and the Valley of Kings, have remained calm during the political violence.

Tour operators meanwhile are gearing up for the return of business to Egypt. G Adventures was one of the first out of the gate to announce that it was going back into Egypt full force.

On Dec. 17, one day before the State Department lifted its warning, G Adventures announced that it would operate its full program of trips to Egypt beginning Jan. 1.

When the State Department acted, Abercrombie & Kent went public with plans for a travel agent fam trip March 14-23 led by the company’s U.S. president, Phil Otterson.

A&K will host 18 travel agents on the trip, which will visit Cairo, the pyramids in Giza and travel on a river cruise to the upper Nile. The group will also be accompanied by A&K’s country manager Amr Badr and other local experts who will give participants the local perspective on recent events as well as on the antiquities.

“The feedback we’ve received from guests who have travelled to Egypt this fall has described just how inspiring it was to visit some of the world’s most important World Heritage sites without the customary crowds,” said Otterson. “And reports from our offices in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Sharm el Sheikh, Abu Simbel have convinced me that this is the right time.”

Big Five Tours also continued to offer custom tours to Egypt for whoever wanted to go.

“We are cautiously optimistic about this and feel that it will go a long way in rebuilding Egypt’s tourism industry,” said Ashish Sanghrajka, Big Five’s president.  “We have a slate of new programs that are coming out that include Egypt. This encourages us to move forward with those plans.”

Big Five’s country manager for Egypt, Gamal Abu Seif, and his daughter Farrah, were part of the movement to oust Mubarak in early 2011 and Morsi last summer.

“They wanted a change in government, but they wanted it done responsibly,” said Sanghrajka. “And that’s not what happened. They got change, but it was not the change they hoped for. It was something they had to go through. What it leads to remains to be seen, but now they are more aware of what the barriers to change might be. The nice thing about this is that Egypt’s democracy is getting a do-over.”

Big Five did not get into discounting to spike demand, as some operators did.

“We stayed away from that,” said Sanghrajka. “The long-term ramifications are too great. It would stop Egyptians getting a fair wage for 10 years if we did that. For every 10 percent you discount, it takes five years to recoup. This applies to the guides, the drivers, the waiters, everyone down the totem pole. It’s great that you get tourists there, but at what cost?”

Big Five will make adjustments in terms of what the market will bear long term, said Sanghrajka, but is opposed to short-term discounting.

“We always believed Egypt would make a nice rebound,” he said. “It’s one country you don’t have to sell. It has what no one else has. With other attractions you may find something similar elsewhere. But Egypt is one place you can’t replace. The pent up demand is always there. It’s an easy sell for us. We can just focus on being creative.”

Being creative is now a possibility again, said Sanghrajka, and the company is planning to roll out programs it’s been working on.

“Now we will add even more, become more flexible,” he said. “There are parts of Egypt that can be discovered, oases and places deeper into the desert that most people didn’t know existed, and now is an opportunity to do that.”

Sunny Land Tours also continued to offer Egypt through the crises, but now is going at it again full force.

“We are gearing up to resume our promotions in earnest starting the first week of January,” said Elie Sidawi, chairman. “I am coordinating with the National Tourist Office and Egypt Air to synchronize our efforts.”

Isramworld also stayed in the game for those who wanted to go.

“Our policy has always been to support the tourism to Egypt as long we feel our passengers will be safe,” said Richard Krieger, president. “This change gives us great encouragement that our plan to increase focus on Egypt is well placed. We hope that conditions in Egypt continue to improve, certainly for the travel industry, but most of all for the people of Egypt.”

Ya’lla Tours resumed its tours two months ago.

“We have been running our programs to Egypt since October 1 and have had a constant growth in traffic,” said Ronen Paldi, president. “This month alone we have had many clients traveling. Since all do in Egypt is private and we don’t have fixed group departures we have more flexibility and the ability to respond to whatever is happening, including the improvements.”

Others, who require minimum numbers to make a departure, such as the ship-based operator Lindblad Expeditions, will take longer getting back into the market.

“We’re keeping a close watch on things, hoping to return as soon as there’s enough demand from the US market that we can again have a robust program,” said Ralph Hammelbacher, vice president, expedition development. “Our concerns have been less from the standpoint of safety of prospective guests, and more from the fact that there have been so few American travelers prepared to go.

"We’re fervently hoping for a peaceful transition to a new government — Egyptians want and desperately need economic growth, of which tourism is a key component.”