Mody Mageed, General Manager, at Amadeus Egypt, has affirmed that the Egyptian tours abroad, especially to Turkey, doubled by 400$% throughout the past 18 months. Also the religious tourism has been doubled, as there is a high turnout on the pilgrimage and Umrah tours. The inbound tourism, since the Egyptian revolution had been erupted, declined by 30%, and also the tourism incomes dived by 70%, the General Manager said. The tourism companies should have a role towards developing the exterior tourism programs, and increasing the interior programs, offering encouraging programs for the resorts in Red Sea and South Sinai; encompassing flights and stay, whereas the flights to Turkey became cheaper than the interior tours to Sharm Al Sheikh and Hurghada. Magdy Selim, chairman of interior tourism sector, Egyptian Tourism Authority (ETA), on his part, said there aren't any accurate statistics about the Egyptian tours abroad, but they may reach 200.000 ones every year. There are new patterns had been emerged; like spending a month-holiday in Turkey, Malaysia and Thailand, which had acquired a large number of Egyptian tourists. Selim has estimated that the number of Egyptians who annually travel to Turkey amounts to 100.000 tourists in return for 70.000 tourists from Turkey to Egypt. On the other hand, the Umrah flights come first, which reached million flights last season, besides 80.000 pilgrimage flights every year.
