CAIRO: A report issued Wednesday by the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) says tourism in Egypt has dropped a staggering 24 percent in the third quarter of the year, in comparison to the same time in 2010. The report said the number of tourists visiting the country in that time frame was 2.8 million while the past year saw 3.6 million visitors. The numbers are from the beginning of July to the end of September, a largely busy season around the world. The report suggests that the political upheaval in the country is behind the dropping numbers, especially tourists from Western Europe, one of the top regions that has sent large numbers in the past. The report said there is a 33.1 percent decrease in the number of visitors coming from that region. Still Western Europe sent 39.9 percent from all visitors to the country. Visitors from the region, a once rich source of tourism, has dropped to 21.6 percent. Overall, only 16.6 percent visitors came this quarter from neighboring countries in the MENA region. Eastern Europe sent 34.6 percent of visitors to Egypt, notably the visitors of this region prefer traveling to the sunny Red Sea, for its relatively cheap costs and warm weather year round. A mere 3.6 percent visitors came from Africa. 18 days of protests and millions of Egyptians in the street forced the former regime to step down, with the military taking over power of the country in the transitional period, but violence has wracked the country in the past few months. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/No5M8 Tags: CAPMAS, Tourism, Visitors Section: Egypt, Travel
