Egyptian tourism bouncing back to recovery
Egypt's tourism industry is showing signs of recovery. Statistics available show that the number of foreign visitors to the country last month neared that of the same period last year.
Statistics released by the interior ministry's passport department and the central agency for mebillsation and statistics show that approximately 363,000 foreigners had visited Egypt in June 2002, almost the same figure recorded in June 2001.
The nights spent by tourists during the same month went beyond 2 million, an insignificant 1.6 per cent down on June 2001.
These auspicious figures help curb the decline in the tourist traffic during the period of January -June, 2002, when tourist visits have reached around 2.2 million, 123 per cent decrease against the same period last year.
During the same period, tourist nights were estimated at 14.62 million, 8 per cent down on the corresponding period of 2001.
The strategic group of the world tourism organization (WTO) lauded the figures as reflecting the viability of the Egyptian example in managing tourism crises.
Figures, meanwhile, indicate that the decline in tourist traffic from Europe has dropped to 2.5 per cent, while the traffic from some European markets, such as Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Hungary, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia and Spain, has reported an increase.
Visitors from the Arab world made a 15 percent increase in June.
Countries taking the lead in terms of tourists coming to Egypt in June 2002 run as follows:
I-ltaly
2- Germany
3. Saudi Arabia
4.The UK
5- Russia
6- The CIS
7- Palestine
8- US
9- France.
Standings of tourist traffic during the first half of the year are
1- German 2- Italy 3- Russia and the cis 4- Uk 5- France 6- Saudi Arabia 7- Libya 8- Benelux 9- Palestine 10- - The US.
Standings in terms of tourist nights during the first half of 2002 are:
1-Germany 2- Italy 3- Russia and the CIA 4 France 5- UK
6-Benelux
7- Saudi Arabia
8- TheUS
9-Libya
10- Switzerland.