Number of tourists visiting Egypt in 2016 hit 5.4 million: CAPMAS

Egypt has welcomed around 5.4 million tourists during 2016, the state statistics agency, CAPMAS said in its latest release on Sunday.

Most of the tourists, who came to Egypt during 2016, were from Western Europe and Middle East countries.

Around 32.7 percent of the total number of tourists visited Egypt in 2016 were from Western Europe; while 29.3 percent were from the Middle East region, the report showed.

Eastern Europe tourists ranked third, capturing 15.2 percent of the total number of tourists visited Egypt throughout 2016, followed by Africans who seized 9.2 percent.

Tourists coming from North America and East Asia regions, captured 4.6 percent and 0.44 percent respectively, the report added.

Egypt’s economy has been struggling since an uprising in 2011 ushered in political instability that drove away tourists and foreign investors, major earners of foreign currency.

The tourism sector received a severe blow following the downing of a Russian passenger plane in Sinai in October 2015, which killed all 224 people on board. The Cabinet outlined a plan in May 2016 aiming to attract 10 million tourists to Egypt by the end of 2017.

The floatation of the local currency, that took place in early November 2016, is widely expected to have a positive impact on the tourism sector. The value of goods in the Egyptian market is now cheaper than that of other markets, encouraging tourists to buy Egyptian products and raising the average tourist expenditure.