Egypt expects revenue from tourism to increase more than 17 percent this year as the world's economy shakes off the impact of the financial crisis, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah told Bloomberg. Receipts from tourism may reach between $12.6 billion and $13 billion “if things go as planned as far as future reservations are concerned,” Garranah said. In 2009, revenue was $10.8 billion. “We are working a hundred times harder now than before” the crisis in 2008, Garranah said, listing the unexpected shocks that the industry had endured in the past year such as the European debt crisis and Iceland's volcanic eruption. Tourism accounts for 12.6 percent of jobs in Egypt, according to the ministry. EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, an Egyptian investment bank, expects tourism revenue to be $12.2 billion this year, while investment bank CI Capital has a forecast of about $12 billion. Russia is the biggest source of tourists to Egypt, followed by countries such as the U.K., Italy, France, Ukraine and Poland. The government has been upgrading airports across the country to accommodate more arrivals and the minister told Bloomberg that 212,000 hotel rooms are under construction to double existing capacity within the next five years.
