Number Of German Tourists In Egypt Exceed 2010 Rates

The numbers of German tourists visiting Egypt in March and April of this year was higher than the same period in 2010, Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou stated on Monday.

A total of 226,000 German tourists visited the country in the last two months, a two percent rise on the figures for March and April 2010, which was considered a year of flourishing tourism, said the minister. In 2010, an estimated 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt, generating $12.5 billion in revenue.

The average length of tourist stays, however, grew to 1.5 million nights in March and 1.3 million nights in April of the current year, approximately 10 percent higher than the same period in 2010, Zaazou said.

Earlier this month, Zaazou said that Egypt had received roughly 2.86 million tourists during the first quarter of 2013, a 14.4 percent rise compared with the same period of last year.

This statement was criticised by some tourism expects, who argued that analysis of the number of tourists was not enough to generate a meaningful comparison between different time periods, as revenues must also be compared.

Ahram