Published on : Tuesday, May 6, 2014
On Sunday, Egypt’s tourism minister declared strategies to revive the country’s tourism sector, after years of political turmoil. According to government data that showed last month, tourism revenue declined 43 percent to 1.3 billion US dollars in the first quarter of this year.
Hisham Zazou, Egyptian Tourism Minister said, “The world will see tourism returning to Egypt.
We have an ambitious global plan to show the world that it is safe and fun to visit Egypt anytime.”
On Friday suicide bombers hit near the tourist resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, killing a soldier and injuring at least eight other people.
In February three South Koreans were killed when a bomb hit a tourist bus in South Sinai near a border crossing with Israel.
However, the tourist sector expects that Egypt’s political scenario will become more stable.
On May 26–27, Egyptians will vote in a presidential election that Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is likely to win easily, meaning the former army chief who deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi could be sworn in as head of state by early June.
According to latest government figures, tourism at present contributes 11.3 percent of Egypt’s GDP and brings in 14.4 percent offoreign currency revenues. In 2010 above 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt, dropping to 9.8 million after the revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. The sector picked up in 2012, drawing 11.5 million but shrank again to 9.5 million last year after various attacks on tourist destinations.
This week, the tourism ministry is launching a three-year marketing campaign in the hope of attracting tourists and investors to the country, perhaps the country’s last hope in fixing its own internal finances without relying on aid from neighboring Gulf states.
Tags: Egypt
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