The number of tourists visiting Egypt during March 2017 increased by almost 49 percent compared to the same month last year, recording 654,900 tourists compared to 440,700 tourists in March 2016, official statistic body CAPMAS announced on Monday. CAPMAS revealed in a statement that the biggest increase was in visitors from western Europe, rising by 31 percent, while Middle Eastern visitors came in second at 24.6 percent, followed by Eastern Europeans at 21.6 percent. The number of tourist arrivals from Arab countries reached 197,900 during March 2017, compared to 151,200 last year, an increase of 30.9 percent. Germany topped the list of countries sending tourists, increasing by 43.9 percent, while in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia was on top, rising by 37. 6 percent. During the first quarter of 2017, from January to March, the number of tourists visiting Egypt rose by 51 percent, compared to the same period last year, an official source at the tourism ministry told Ahram Online in late April. In early May, a source at the tourism ministry told Ahram Online that Egypt saw $1.6 billion in tourism revenues from around 1.7 million tourists who visited the country in the first three months of 2017, compared to around 1.2 million tourists in same period last year. The country's tourism receipts recorded around $1.5 billion in revenues from January to March last year. Egypt's tourism industry has been suffering since a Russian passenger jet crashed in Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board, most of them holidaymakers. Since the deadly incident, Russia, which was the number-one source of tourists visiting Egypt, suspended flights to the country pending the implementation of tighter security measures at all Egyptian airports. Egypt's revenues from tourism dropped to $3.4 billion in 2016, a 44.3 percent decline from the previous year, the Central Bank of Egypt said in January. The figure is a far cry from the $11 billion in revenues generated by the sector in 2010, when 14.7 million tourists visited the country.
