CBE: Egypt tourist numbers hit 2.3 million in H1

Around 2.3 million tourists visited Egypt spending 13.5 million nights in the first half of the year, a recent report by the country’s central bank showed.

Tourists coming from Europe headed the list in terms of the length of stay as well as number of visitors to the North African country, recording 1.1 million visitors who spent 6.1 million nights, the report added.

Middle Eastern tourists ranked second in the list, with a number of 654,000 visitors to Egypt during the first half of 2016.

Tourists coming from African countries were place third, while tourists from North and South Americas were fourth. Tourists from Asia and Pacific countries ranked fifth.

Egypt’s tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and a critical source of hard currency, has struggled to rebound since the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule ushered in a period of political and economic upheaval.

Egypt has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent months, straining the tourism sector and the economy as a whole.

The number of tourists fell 40 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to last year due in large part to the suspected bombing of a Russian plane carrying 224 people from a Red Sea resort in late October.

Islamic State said it had smuggled a bomb aboard and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called the incident act of terrorism. Since then, many European airlines have halted flights to Sharm El Sheikh.

Egypt aims to attract 12 million tourists by the end of 2017 through a plan that includes increasing the presence of national carrier EgyptAir abroad, tourism minister Yehia Rashed said in an interview with Reuters last April.