The number of tourists visiting Egypt has dropped by 60 percent. Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced Thursday that there has been a drastic decrease in the number of tourists in comparison to March of 2010. Tourism is one of the sectors most affected by recent events in Egypt. The losses sustained by the tourism sector in March amounted to around 3.82 billion EGP (U.S. $648 million). Touristic spending in March 2011 was around U.S. $352 million, while in March 2010 it reached U.S. $1 billion. CAPMAS said in the March edition of its monthly bulletin that the tourism sector had begun to resume its regular activity. The number of tourists visiting Egypt from around the world was 535,000, compared with 1.3 million during the same period in 2010. Eastern Europe showed the greatest decrease in the number of tourists visiting Egypt – numbers were down 86.2 percent – followed tourists from Western Europe, who were down 54.4 percent. There was also a drop of 64.8 percent in the number of nights tourists spent in Egypt from March 2010 to March 2011. Eastern Europe again showed the greatest decrease, down 88.4 percent, followed by Western Europe, down 59.1 percent.
