São Paulo – Egypt welcomed 659,900 foreign tourists in March, up 48.6% from March 2016, according to the latest figures released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
Tourist increased the most from Western Europe, at 31.9%, with Germany being the single country with the biggest increase, at 43.9%. Tourist influx from the Middle East was up 24.6%, with Saudi Arabian arrivals going up 37.6%.
Eastern Europe came in third at 21.6%, with Ukrainian arrivals increasing by 56.3%. Egypt welcomed 197,900 tourists from Arab countries, up 39.9% from March 2016.
The online version of Egyptian news daily Al-Ahram reported that foreign traveler numbers in Egypt were up 51% year-on-year to approximately 1.7 million, with tourist revenue reaching USD 1.6 billion.
Egypt’s tourism industry was slumping since a Russian passenger plane crashed on the Sinai in 2015, but a rebound began early this year. Still, no information is available yet regarding the impact of the terror attacks against Coptic Christians that took place in April and last week.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
