The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development issued a report on targets and investments of the tourism sector in the plan for the current fiscal year (FY) 2022/23. Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said said that tourism is a major driver of the global economy, as it alone generates about 10% of the GDP, and accounts for about 7% of international trade, and 28% of international service exports, and employs about 330 million people. These tangible economic contributions reflect the large volume of international tourism, amounting to about 1.5 billion tourists annually, and the growth of tourism income resulting from spending numbers. The large number of international visitors, which is estimated at $1.5trn annually, and these price and financial flows increase annually by no less than 5% under normal circumstances. El-Said noted that investments in the tourism and antiquities sector are estimated to reach about EGP 7.4bn in the FY 2022/23, compared to EGP 6.2bn in investments expected in FY 2021/22, with a growth rate of 19.4%. The report highlighted the main directions of the tourism development strategy for the year 2022/23, most notably the intensive promotion of the charter flight stimulus programme, and the intensification of the media plan for this programme in the main sending and arriving countries, especially the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. As well as , countries of Eastern Europe, from which the number of arrivals has not decreased such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Belarus, communicating with the Russian side to resume flights, especially since Russia announced the resumption of charter flights starting from 9 April with 52 countries, including Egypt, early promotion of Egyptian tourist destinations in Arab markets (especially Gulf markets) and Arab countries that have begun to stabilize its internal conditions are relatively to move to the stage of reconstruction and reconstruction, besides promising Asian markets, led by China, India and Japan. The report further noted that the tourism sector is a dynamic and flexible sector that is able to withstand and recover within a short period in light of its positive interaction with initiatives and work mechanisms aimed at restoring its development path. Among the indications of this is the tourism growth achieved during the year 2021 (despite the continuation of the pandemic) compared to the peak year of the pandemic ( 2020), the number of visitors jumped from about 3.7 million visitors to about 8 million visitors, and the number of tourist nights from 43 million nights to 93.8 million nights, corresponding to the growth of tourism income from $4.1bn to $9bn during the two years of comparison. The performance expectations for the year 2022/22 also reflect that the movement will reach about 8.9 million visitors, spending about 100 million nights and spending about $9.6bn, according to the report.
