The number of tourists visiting Egypt in 2009 fell 2.3 per cent to 12.5 million, after the global slowdown kept more European travellers at home, the State-run Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported on Thursday. Tourism accounts for about 11 per cent of Egypt's gross domestic product and is a crucial source of foreign currency and jobs. The report said the 2009 figure was preliminary and did not name a source. The Tourism Ministry said it could not confirm the number, but would release figures early next month. "Final figures will be announced within days," the newspaper said. "But the travel and tourism section (of Al-Ahram) learned that, despite a decline in Egypt of just 2.3 per cent, some countries saw an increase in the number of tourists to Egypt." Russia led those countries with more than two million tourists, while Germany and Italy maintained figures of about one million tourists each, it added. Egypt's tourism sector was hit hard by the global economic crisis early in 2009 -- revenues were down 13.2 per cent in the first quarter -- but officials and analysts gradually revised their outlooks up as the year progressed. About 11.45 million tourists visited Egypt in the first 11 months of 2009, down 3.4 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, the ministry said in December. Revenues were down 3.1 per cent. In 2008 more than 12.8 million tourists visited Egypt, attracted by its Pharaonic ruins and Red Sea resorts, bringing in revenues of nearly $11 billion.
