Egypt’s CBE: Tourism revenues retreat by 12.8% in nine months

Tourism revenues decreased by 12.8 percent in the first nine months of the financial year 2016/2017, according to data released by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

Revenues amounted to $2.8 billion in the period from July 2016 to March 2017, down from $3.3 billion in the year-ago-period, the CBE stated in its balance of payments (BOP) report.

The CBE attributed the revenue drop to a 25.9 percent slide in tourism nights in the nine month-period to 33.4 million nights, from 45.1 million in the same period in 2015/2016.

The decline in tourism revenues also led to a drop in the balance of services surplus by 18.6 percent in the first nine months of FY16/17.

Regarding the third quarter from January to March 2017, the CBE indicated that tourism revenues jumped to $1.3 billion from $550.5 million in the same quarter in 2016. Similarly, the number of tourist nights increased to 14.2 million during the period from 6.9 million.

Payments for travelling abroad fell to $448.3 million in the first three months of 2017, compared to $1.2 billion in the corresponding quarter the year before owing to lower e-card payments abroad.

Accordingly, on a year-on-year basis, e-card payments registered $266.7 million, compared to $751.4 million.

The travel balance recorded a surplus of $808.4 million in the first three months of 2017, against a deficit of $641.2 million in the same period in the year before.

Source: Mubasher