Tourism rebounding in Egypt
Egypt’s tourism minister says he expects the number of tourists to rebound this year to pre-revolution levels of 14.5 million. That follows a slump in 2011 after the dramatic uprising that forced out President Hosni Mubarak and brought much of Egypt’s economy to a halt.
There were already signs of improvement with tourist arrivals rising 40 percent in the first four months of this year from a year earlier, Mounir Fakhry AbdelNour told Reuters.
Tourism used to account for more than a tenth of Egypt’s gross domestic product (GDP) before the uprising. Tourism "employs an estimated one in eight workers in a country where anger over high unemployment triggered the uprisings," Reuters said.
"My aim for this year is to see the number of tourists to Egypt this year rise to 2010 levels," AbdelNour told reporters during a press conference.
He said the growth in tourism numbers this year will be driven by new products such as the reopening of the Nile cruise from Cairo to Aswan.
In 2010, around 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt generating around $12.5 billion, but their numbers slumped to 9.8 million visitors in 2011 generating $8.8 billion, said AbdelNour.
By David Wilkening
David
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