The Ministry of Tourism has signed a protocol pact with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to encourage international search companies like Google to promote Egyptian tourism destinations, beginning 1 July, said Minister of Tourism Hesham Zazou. “There are two billion Internet users globally," said Zazou, during a press conference in Dubai on Saturday ahead of the Arabian Travel Market event. “30% of tourists are using the internet for tourism, from browsing to transactions," he added. Zazou also announced that Egypt is looking to double its tourism revenues and visitors within ten years, targeting tourism revenue of $25bn through 30 million arrivals by 2020. Tourism revenues have plunged by 30% in 2013 year-on-year figures, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Egypt hosted 14.7 million tourists in 2010, reaping $12.5bn in revenue, with those numbers dropping after the outbreak of the January 25 Revolution to 9.8 million and $8.8bn respectively. These numbers improved slightly in 2012 to 11.5 million tourists and $10bn in revenues.
