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Egypt sees 0.5% drop in tourists in first 8 months of 2013 A recent report by the Ministry of Tourism reveals that foreign visitor numbers have decreased in 2013, amid travel warnings and protests
Egypt received around 7.25 million tourists in the first eight months of 2013, 0.5 percent less than the numbers during the same period last year, a recent report released by the Egyptian tourism ministry shows. According to the report, the most substantial decrease came from Middle Eastern tourists to Egypt, whose numbers fell to 1.15 million visitors, some 7.8 percent less than the same period in 2012. The North and South American tourists visiting Egypt has also plummeted by 6.7 percent, from 1.90 million in the first eight months of 2012 to 1.77 million during the same period this year. In early July, ongoing protests and civil unrest caused Canada and the United States to issue travel warnings to their citizens following the 30 June deposal of former president Mohamed Morsi amid nationwide popular protests. The warnings recommended that citizens avoid all travel to Egypt and provided evaculation plans for citizens who wished to leave the country. The report added that number of African tourists to Egypt plunged by 3 percent recording 2.7 million. On the other hand, the year-to-August's tourists came from Europe crawled 1.5 percent, reaching 5.38 million versus 5.30 million in the same period in 2012. Russians have represented the biggest European group travelled to Egypt in Jan-Aug 2013 reaching 1.74 million compared 1.41 million a year before. An official delegation of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with security experts arrived in Egypt's Red Sea governorate Thursday to verify that the tourist-friendly southern province is secure. Earlier this week, Egyptian Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou flew to Russia to ask the foreign ministry to remove its travel warnings on Egypt while participating in the 19th Leisure Tourism Exhibition in Moscow. Zaazou hopes to persuade Russian officials to lift the travel warnings imposed 15 August, or to exclude the Red Sea and South Sinai governorates, which he considers safe areas for tourism. In August, the Russian Federal Aviation Agency ordered airlines to make contingency plans for evacuating Russian tourists from Egypt due to the deterioration of security nationwide following the dispersal of major sit-ins in Cairo and Giza supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/82101.aspx
