(AFP PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI)
Tourism activity for the current fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015 will see income rise 47% to $7.5bn, compared to $5.1bn in the previous year, according to a Tourism Ministry official.
In the first half (1H) of the current FY, tourism revenues rose to $4.5bn compared to $2.2bn during the same period last year, the official said.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a report on Sunday that tourism revenues in the last nine months of the current FY 2014/2015 increased to $5.5bn. This compared to $3.1bn in the same period in the previous fiscal year.
Tourist flow increased during the 1H of FY 2014/2015, according to the Egyptian Tourism Federation’s Chairman Elhamy El-Zayat, who added that the current year will be better than the previous one. “However, we will not fully recover as we still suffer tourist recession that would affect the tourism income in Egypt,” said Zayat.
Marketing campaigns carried out by the Ministry of Tourism during 1H of FY 2014/2015, which covered the Arab as well as Western and Eastern Europe markets, have significantly contributed to the growth of Egypt’s tourism income, El-Zayat said.
Recently, Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh have become the most popular tourist areas in terms of occupancy, compared to lower occupancy in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan.
Red Sea occupancies range between 40% and 60%, and are expected to exceed 70% in August, according to Chamber of Hotels member Tarek Shalaby.
The tourist flow coming from Russia has begun to recover with the improvement of the rouble’s exchange rate against the dollar, according to El-Zayat.
The Russian tourists in Egypt represent 31% of the total annual flows, where Europe represents 35%, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Last year the number of Russian tourists reached approximately 3.1 million, resulting in an income of $2.5bn.
