Egypt lost a third of tourists in a year

In 2011 the flow of foreign tourists Egypt It's down 33 percent. The reason for this was the unstable political situation in the country: the popular unrest that broke out at the beginning of the year, a coup d’etat and the subsequent parliamentary elections, most of which were won by representatives of the Islamist parties “Muslim Brotherhood” and “en-Nur”.

Such a significant decline in tourist flow has seriously hurt the economy of Egypt, as the tourism sector accounts for 11% of the country’s GDP, and the tourism industry directly employs 3 million Egyptians.

Last year, 9 million 854 thousand foreign tourists entered Egypt, RIA Novosti reports, citing the local Ministry of Tourism. During the year, the authorities did everything possible to increase the flow of tourists, but by the end of 2011, new clashes broke out in Cairo in October.

The tourist sector of the Egyptian capital, which has become the center of mass popular protests, suffered the most in the past year. Revenues in Luxor and Aswan in the south also fell significantly. At the resorts of the Sinai Peninsula, the situation was somewhat better. At the same time, those tourists who did come to Egypt spent less money on vacation. In 2010, each foreigner spent $85 a day on average, but in 2011 this figure fell to $72 a day. This is due in particular to lower prices for services. All this has led to a reduction in tourism revenues from $12.5 billion to $8.8 billion, Egyptian Tourism Minister Munir Fakhrir Abdelnur said at a press conference on the results of the year in the tourism sector of the country.

In 2012, a new campaign to popularize holidays in Egypt began. “We take part in tourism forums in Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia,” he said. He added that the authorities hope for a significant improvement in the situation in the tourism sector of Egypt in the coming year.


Source: http://www.travel.ru/news/2012/01/16/197351.html