Egypt falling revenues from tourism

Egypt landed revenues from tourism increased by 43 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to a record $ 1.3 billion, according to the Economic Adviser indicated to the Egyptian Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou.

Chancellor attributed the economic fair Recep revenue decline to "the bus bombing in Taba on 17 February."

The face of the bombing of a bus carrying Korean tourists in Taba, located on the Sinai Peninsula last February a major blow to the tourism industry in Egypt, at a time when it is trying to get out of the crisis that befell them as a result of the political turmoil in the last three years.

Rajab said that Egypt received about two million tourists in the first quarter of 2014, down 30 percent from the corresponding quarter of 2013.

She described the drop in revenue as a "very natural" as a result of the bombing of the bus and then to Germany warning its citizens against traveling to Sinai, which followed a similar warning from about 15 countries, according to the news agency Reuters.

The tourism companies hope the situation improved after a bad season in 2013, as tourism revenues dropped by 41 per cent to 5.9 billion dollars in 2013.

The newspaper quoted the Egyptian Stock Exchange from July as saying that the number of tourists in March, amounted to 755 thousand tourists, down 32 percent, and revenues of 410 million dollars, representing a decline of 45 percent from March 2013.

She added that the number of tourists in February amounted to 616 thousand tourists, down 28 percent from the same month last year.

The tourism revenues and Suez Canal and remittances from Egyptians abroad is a major source of hard currency in the country.

It is noteworthy that the number of tourists in Egypt reached 9.5 million people in 2013 after the country attracted about 14.8 million tourists in 2010.

Recep She expressed the hope that "the situation improves after the presidential elections and the completion of the road map that will change public opinion outside of what is happening in Egypt, which will impact positively on the tourism sector."