The average expenditure of tourists coming to Egyptian destinations increased to reach $88.20 during the first half of this year. The sub-accounts unit of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism said that the average expenditure increased by 7.5% ($6.2) this year from $82 in the same half last year. Sources told Daily News Egypt that the rise in the average expenditure of tourists was driven by a change in the composition of tourists and their nationality and dependence on new markets. The source highlighted Chinese and Japanese tourists amongst the new markets that contributed to the increase, along with the growing number of Gulf tourists. Moreover, the sources said that these nationalities are among the most spending nationalities around the world. The Ministry of Tourism has worked on the use of new mechanisms to promote the inflow of tourists to Egyptian destinations, including a new flight incentive program. The ministry has begun to stimulate regular flights, which brings a kind of high-spending tourist, as well as stimulating charter flights. The Ministry of Tourism decided to pay the financial stimulus to the aviation programme of the Egyptian Airports Company owned by the government, the latter to reduce the fees for foreign aviation in the same value, instead of dealing directly between the ministry and foreign companies. A report issued by the Ministry of Planning said that the current fiscal year 2017/2018 will see some 10.5 million tourists coming to Egypt against 6.5 million who visited last year—an estimated increase of 61.5%. The report added that the expected revenues during the current fiscal year will reach $7.8bn, up from $4.8bn last year, marking a growth of 62.5%, adding that revenues will reach $28.4bn by 2019/2020. A government official told Reuters that Egypt's revenues from the tourism sector jumped 170% to $3.5bn in the first seven months of this year and that the number of tourists increased by 54%.
