The country, which has experienced a renewal of violence in recent weeks, welcomed 753,000 visitors who stayed a total of 8.3 million nights in February, according to the central agency for public mobilisation and statistics. The figure compares with 211,000 visitors who stayed 4.5 million nights in February last year - the same month the president Hosni Mubarak was toppled following weeks of resistance against his rule.
Egypt has experienced a 32 per cent rise in arrivals in the first quarter of this year compared with a year ago, according to Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, Egypt's minister of tourism. Speaking at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai last week, he said he expected the number of visitors to reach levels last seen before the revolution in 2011, when it welcomed 1.1 million tourists in 2010. more info here : Egypt last minute (http://egyptlastminute.com/
Egypt has put significant effort into trying to lure tourists back from the GCC, launching an advertising campaign last May that targeted Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. The number of Emirati tourists to Egypt increased by 15.4 per cent in the first quarter, figures from the Egyptian Tourist Authority show, rising from 4,232 to 4,883.
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After the Gulf countries, Europe is the largest tourist market for Egypt, according to Mr. Horsley. "If you are looking at Europe, financially because of the global situation and this coupled with the recent uprisings they have had in Egypt. I would imagine, deter some of the operators," he said. The UK foreign and commonwealth office is advising against all but essential travel to Sinai north of the Suez-Taba road.
"The other factor is the further you get into the summer, the hotter it becomes, which makes it a less attractive proposition,"
Report by egyptlastminute.com
