CAIRO: Egypt's tourism continues to fall as the number of tourists visiting the country dropped by 28.2 percent in July, compared with the same period last year. Official data also shows that nearly 936,000 tourists visited the country in July 2011, against 1.3 million in July 2010, Al-Ahram state newspaper reported. Arab tourists visiting the country declined by 28.4 percent to 219,000 in July, compared to about 306,000 a year earlier. Earlier this month, an official from the Ministry of Tourism told Daily News Egypt that tourism fell 35 percent during the entire second quarter of 2011, compared to the same period last year. A total of 2.2 million tourists visited the country during the quarter, 42 percent came from Western Europe, 27 percent from Eastern Europe and 17.7 percent were Middle Eastern, according a report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). The report found that the number of Eastern European tourists, who make up a large amount of Egypt's tourist base, dropped 46 percent. Moreover, the number of Western European tourists fell 35 percent. Currently, the tourism ministry is in discussion with several countries in order to ease visa regulations for visitors. The ministry has also devised a public relation and media campaign, providing incentives for charter flights, facilitating visa regulations, and collaborating with local hotels to provide attractive packages for visitors, Omayma El-Husseini, the ministry's spokesperson told DNE.
