Deputy Minister of Tourism Adla Ragab, said that the chances of increasing Japanese tourism to Egypt are very high, with flights from EgyptAir between Japan and Luxor. Ragab added that Japanese tourism to Egypt is considered one of the most important wishing to visit the archaeological areas in Luxor and Aswan with higher expenditure rates of over $80 per night. According to an official at the Egyptian Tourism Authority, the number of Japanese tourists who visited Egypt during the first half of this year reached 18,000 tourists, up by 127% compared to the same period last year. Japanese tourists were said to have spent 108,000 nights, up by 98% compared to the same period last year. The official predicted that Japanese tourists will rise this year to 50,000. According to the official, the average stay of Japanese tourist in Egypt is more than four nights, during which they visit many archaeological areas in southern Egypt or in Greater Cairo. "We have a good plan over the next two years to raise the influx from the countries of East and South Asia in order to get near the 600,000 tourists from these markets," the official said, noting that these markets are very promising, especially India and China. He said that it depends on the availability of airlines, which is already in place, where there is the EgyptAir line from Tokyo to Luxor, next to the private companies starting to run flights from these markets to Egypt. The tourism ministry aims to boost the total number of tourists to 8 million by the end of the year, up from 4.5 million last year. The official said that traditional markets still account for the largest share of tourists inflow to Egypt. The traditional markets that export tourism to Egypt are Europe, along with the Arab Gulf countries and Libya, the first accounts for 70%, and the second for 20% of annual inflow. He pointed out that there are strong indicators of the recovery of the sector, especially with the increasing occupancy in Hurghada during the past two months with the expectation of increasing numbers of tourists coming from the countries of Ukraine, Germany, and Italy during the winter. "We hope that the number of German tourists this year will rise to close to one million tourists," he said. This would be up from 700,000 last year. According to the official, the ETA plan during the current period depends on the combination of traditional markets in Europe and the new markets in Asia, which increase revenues. He explained that the expenditure ratios for the new markets tourists are very high.
