22% decline in expected tourism revenues end of FY 2014/2015: Tourism official

Tourism revenues registered $7.8bn last year, with 22% decline from ministry's target, estimated at $10bn

Tourism revenues in the last fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015 declined to $7.8bn, compared to the targeted revenues of $10bn, according to a Ministry of Tourism official.
The official said, in an exclusive statement to Daily News Egypt, that tourism revenues to Egypt during the first half of the last FY amounted to $4.5bn, while in the second half they registered $3.3bn.
The FY in Egypt starts in July and ends in June.
The Ministry of Tourism targeted tourism revenues of $10bn during the last FY, against $5.1bn the previous year.
The decline in tourism revenues during last FY reached 22%, according to the official, who added that the reason for the decline is the decrease in tourism services prices.
The official believes that the last FY witnessed many negative events, which affected the tourism revenues to Egypt, especially due to terrorist attacks in North Sinai. He explained that these incidents will also affect the flow of tourism this FY.
Tourism revenues in Egypt during 2014 amounted to $7.3bn, while in 2013 they registered $5.9bn.
According to the official, Egypt aims to exceed $8bn in the current FY 2015/2016, adding that the excess will not be much in light of the decrease in tourism services prices in Egypt, and the increase in operating prices.
According to the Sub-Accounts Unit of the Ministry of Tourism, there are 3.5 million workers in the tourism sector; 1.8 million of whom are directly employed by the sector, while the rest are indirectly involved.
"The prices of tourism in Egypt decreased by 15% over the past year, in light of the current events," said the former chairman of the Tourism Activation Authority (TAA,) Ahmed El Khadem.
Today, Egypt has 225,000 hotel rooms, 65% of which are in the Red Sea and South Sinai, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
These two areas are far from the terrorist attacks in Cairo, which creates stability in hotel occupancies, according to the ministry official, who added that "tourism will recover strongly with the return of stability".
Besides remittances by Egyptians abroad and the Suez Canal, tourism is one of the most important sources of hard currency in the Egyptian economy.
Egyptian tourism has been suffering from a decline in numbers of tourists and revenues over the past four years, as revenues during 2010, before the 25 January Revolution, reached $12.5bn. Also, the number of tourists visiting Egypt in the last four years did not exceed 11 million tourists, against 14.7 million tourists in 2010.
Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF) Chairman Elhamy El-Zayat believes that Egyptian tourism is capable of recovering, but it depends primarily on the state of security. He added that the current year is an extension to the crises witnessed by the sector over the past four years.
"Over the upcoming period, we will work on cooperating with the ministry in programmes for promoting Egyptian tourism abroad, especially in Arab and European regions," said El-Zayat.
European tourism represents about 72% of the total tourism flow to Egypt every year, while Arab tourism declined to less than 15%, in comparison to 20% before the 25 January Revolution.