CAIRO: In an interview with Bloomberg news organization, Egypt's Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana said he expected to see a growth in tourism by 17 percent this year, a massive increase as the country comes out of the economic decline globally that left visitors staying home. He cited ministry reports that say tourism revenue in the country could reach as high as $13 billion “if things go as planned as far as future reservations are concerned. “We are working a hundred times harder now than before” the crisis in 2008, Garana said, referring to the unexpected shocks that the industry had endured in the past year, including the European debt crisis and Iceland's volcanic eruption. Tourism accounts for 12.6 percent of jobs in Egypt, according to the ministry. Based on these figures, the total tourism revenues for the fiscal year 2009/2010 amounted to $11.5 billion, according to investment bank Beltone, who said it had expected that the revenues of tourism in the same quarter to be around $2.8 billion. Reham el-Desouky, an analyst at Beltone said that the ministry expected an increase in tourism revenues by the end of the fiscal year 2009/2010 with the start of recovery from the repercussions of the global crisis, in addition to “the continuation of Egypt's tourist attraction as a result of lower prices compared to its neighbors.” Desouky believes that increasing the time of stay in Egypt, in addition to the higher average expenditure by tourists may have contributed to the increase in revenue. However, tourism revenues declined in 2009 as a whole, by 2.1 percent, compared to the previous year, reach $10.76 billion, “but it had achieved an increase of 24 percent during the first quarter of 2010 to reach,” the ministry of tourism said. At the same time, the number of tourists to Egypt decreased during 2009 by 2.3 percent. Some 12.5 million people visited Egypt. The number of tourists who visited Egypt during the first quarter of 2010, however, increased 29 percent to reach 3.46 million. Desouky said she expected a continued increase in tourism revenues throughout 2010, “although it will not be as powerful as a result of the crisis of the Euro and the differences in the speed of recovery from the crisis between the region and Egypt.” She also expected revenues to reach $12.4 billion by the end of the year. It is worth mentioning that 70 percent of European tourists coming to Egypt come from countries that operate in the European currency, which fell 11 percent against the Egyptian pound this year, according to Bloomberg news agency data. Garana had indicated in previous press statements that the impact of the crisis in the Euro zone “would not appear on the tourism sector this year because the season of European tourism in Egypt in March, April and May has passed. This period is already recorded without being affected,” he added. “The Egyptian tourism sector in the current months depends on the Russian tourists, who represent about 17 percent of the total tourists,” Garana said in an earlier interview with Bikya Masr. BM
