Egypt to allocate $32 mln to airport security amid tourism crisis

Friday 11-03-2016 11:13 PM

Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort - Reuters photo

CAIRO, Mar 11 (Aswat Masriya) - The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism has added $32 million of its budget to airport security, and there will be a company specialised in the matter for the first time, the tourism minister said in a statement on Friday. 

Hisham Zaazou added that there are various procedures being taken to deal with the lack of efficient airport security. A security committee to be headed by the prime minister has been formed while the security company Control Risks has been hired to review airport security procedures.

The minister said in Berlin’s tourism stock exchange that the German market is one of the five biggest markets for tourism in Egypt. His German counterpart said that the German government does not have a problem with its citizens visiting Egypt.

Egypt’s tourism crisis has worsened after a Russian crashed over Sharm el-Sheikh last October, killing over 200 tourists, amid an already deteriorating tourism industry.

Egypt's prime minister, Sherif Ismail, said on state television on Monday that tourism revenues fell by $1.3 bln after the plane crash.  

Last December, Zazou launched the "This is Egypt" campaign in an effort to dispel what he views as a negative impression of tourism in Egypt.

Egypt is currently trying to revive its tourism sector, which was a main source of income in Egypt until a popular uprising which toppled former President Hosni Mubarak's regime in 2011 triggered four years of political turmoil, taking its toll on the sector. 

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