Revenues from tourism are growing: Does Egypt no longer need Russian tourists?

Egypt reports the largest tourism revenues in the last 10 years, the Arab country achieved economic success in the absence of mass tourism from Russia.

The Central Bank of ARE has published the results of the development of the country's economy for the 2018-2019 financial year. Income from tourism in EgyptIt grew by 8.6% to $12.6 billion, the highest figure in the history of the tourism sector.

The previous record was in 2010 ($12.5 billion), when Russians came to Egypt. Due to the revolution of 2011, tourism revenues fell (2011 – $ 8.8 billion, 2012 – $ 7.6 billion, 2013 – $ 5.9 billion). In 2014, they grew ($7.5 billion), but due to the terrorist attack in 2015, the inflow and income fell (in 2015 – $ 6 billion, in 2016 – $ 5 billion).

In 2018, revenues reached $11.6 billion. The Ministry of Tourism of Egypt reports that the tourism sector accounts for 15% of the country’s GDP.

The Ministry of Tourism of Egypt attributed the success of the industry to “structural changes in the sector”, but did not give specific examples.

In 2018, Egypt “closed” the official statistics of inbound tourism, and observers do not know whether to trust the official data on the growth of tourism revenues, and do not exclude that this is a pr-move on the eve of the winter season.

The situation with the return of Russian flights to Egypt is still unclear.

Deputy Foreign Minister S. Vershinin said: “This issue is carefully considered by experts to fully guarantee the reliable functioning of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh airports.”

According to experts, the revival of the topic of charters is possible in late October before the summit “Russia – Africa”.

Source: atorus