Egypt's tourism revenue drops by 43 pct in Q1 - official

Wednesday 16-04-2014 10:56 AM
Egypt's tourism revenue drops by 43 pct in Q1 - official

A man rides a camel as he waits for tourists in front of a part of the Giza pyramid, near Cairo January 12, 2013. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

By

CAIRO, April 16 (Reuters) - Egypt's tourism revenues dropped 43 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to $1.3 billion, Adela Ragab, the country's economic adviser to the Minister of Tourism, told Reuters on Wednesday.

The tourism sector, which has been damaged by the political instability that followed a popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, suffered another blow in February when a coach carrying Korean tourists was bombed by Islamist extremists.

Ragab said around 15 countries issued travel warnings against Egypt after the incident, which contributed to a 30 percent drop in the number of tourists in the first quarter to two million people.

The sector saw a 41 percent drop in revenue last year to $5.9 billion compared to the year earlier after hundreds were killed in the violence that followed the army's overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July. (Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

facebook comments