The number of tourists arriving to Egypt in June 2015 totalled 820,000, the Central Agency for Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced in a Wednesday report. The latest figures compare to the 785,900 who arrived in the same month of the preceding year, marking a 4.4% year-on-year (YoY) increase. "Eastern Europe recorded the first area for sending tourists during June 2015 with 44.7%, followed by Western Europe with 31.1 %, and then Middle East with 13.4%," the report added. Russian tourists took the lion's share among Eastern European visitors, comprising 67.9%, while German tourists comprised 30.7% of Western European tourists. Libyan tourists dominated the figures of Middle Eastern visitors with 27.1%. "The number of departing tourists reached 811,400 tourists during June 2015 compared to 751,900 tourists during June 2014, an increase of 7.9%," CAPMAS's report added. An increase was also noticed in the number of nights spent by tourists, which increased 13.7% YoY, climbing from 6.8m nights to 7.7m nights. The same statistical advantage went to Eastern European tourists, topping the list with 44.8%, followed by Western Europeans, who amounted to 29.7% of the total nights spent, then Middle Eastern tourists with a 16.3% share. The average time spent by departing tourists reached 9.5 nights during June 2015, compared to nine nights during the same month the previous year, the report noted. "Russia was the largest country regarding the number of tourist nights, with 80.1% of the total number of nights for Eastern Europe," the report said. It added: "Germany was the largest country regarding the number of tourist nights, with 34.5% of the total number of nights for Western Europe." In February, economic consultant to the Minister of Tourism Adela Ragab told Daily News Egypt that, despite the rouble's decline against the US dollar at the end of 2014, Russia led Egypt's tourism sector, providing 3 million tourists. Spending rates for Russian tourists range between $50 and $55 per night. Between 15 January and 30 April, the Ministry of Interior exempted Russian tourists from paying a $25 entrance visa upon arrival to Egypt. The exemption came as a means of supporting incoming tourism traffic from Russia, in its position as one of the most important tourism exporting countries to Egypt. Approximately 135,600 Arab tourists arrived this June, compared to 149,900 last year, decreasing by 3.5%. "The number of tourist nights spent by departing tourists from Arab countries reached 1.5m nights during June 2015, compared to 1.7m nights during the same month in 2014, a decrease of 10.7% of the total tourist nights," the CAPMAS report said. Several campaigns were launched to attract tourists from the Gulf region, namely Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.
