353,000 tourists visited Egypt in December

The Egyptian central bank said in its monthly news yesterday that nearly 353,000 tourists visited Egypt in December 1999, a decrease from the November numbers of 459,000 visitors but still an increase from last year's 301,000 visitors in December 1998.

The average tourist stay reached seven nights in December, without a change from November and with an increase from six nights in December 1998.

The total number of tourism nights decreased in December to 2.07 million nights from 3.32 million in November, but it increased from 1.52 million nights in December 1998, where these numbers reflect a natural correlation between the number of tourists per month and the number of tourist nights.