Egypt's earnings from tourism dipped to $10.8 billion in 2009, the tourism minister said Monday, down from almost $11 billion a year ago but not as sharp a fall as analysts had expected. "Tourism revenues were $10.76 billion in 2009," Tourism Minister Zoheir Garrana told a news conference on Monday, adding that the figure represented a dip of $220 million, or 2 per cent. Tourism is one of Egypt's key foreign currency earners, along with Suez Canal receipts, remittances from Egyptian expatriates and natural gas exports. It accounts for about 11 percent of the North African country's gross domestic product. Egypt's tourism sector was hit hard by the global economic crisis early in the year - revenues were down 13.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009 - but officials and analysts gradually revised their outlooks up as the season progressed. The number of tourists visiting Egypt dipped 2.3 per cent to 12.5 million in 2009, Garrana said. Tourist are drawn by Egypt's Red Sea resorts and pharaonic ruins.
