The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has opted to extend its "support tourism" initiative to December 2014 due to "the sector's significance as a main pillar of the Egyptian economy," the bank said in an official statement on Monday. The initiative, which was launched in March 2013 to encourage investors who work in the tourism sector, was supposed to be terminated in December 2013. Primarily designed to postpone debt installments for tourism investors, the initiative was intended to delay standing and current financial dues for both long-term and short-term loans for one year. The CBE announcement also said that civil aviation transportation has been added to the initiative's extension, which previously included hotels, travel agencies and tourism projects. The latest statistical report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) stated that tourist arrival rates dropped by 69.7% in September. The report indicated that the total number of arriving tourists was 301,150. The most significant decline was in the number of European tourists which decreased from 421,539 in August to 159,752 in September. The September report continues the increasingly decline tourist visits to Egypt. CAPMAS previously reported that the number of tourist visiting Egypt in August dropped by 45.6% and 24.5% in July.
