Tourism boom witnessed in 1st quarter of 2017

Tourism Minister Yahia Rashed stressed on Thursday that Egypt witnessed a tourism boom in the first quarter of 2017 with a 50-percent increased compared with the corresponding period of 2016.
The number of tourist nights increased by more than 100 percent with the average tourist spending hitting 88.2 dollars per night higher than the 85-dollar spending of 2010, the minister said in press statements.
He stressed that the technical secretariat of the Egyptian Tourism Federation is now mulling a number of measures to attract tourists, including the application of electronic visa, the prices of hotels and granting immediate visas to residents of Gulf and Arab Maghreb countries.
Under the electronic visa project, tourists will be able to apply for a visa online via a barcode they will receive. After the approval of the Egyptian authorities, a copy of the visa is sent to them electronically.
He defended the decision to close some tourism promotion offices abroad, saying there is a trend in the State to diminish expenses but it is a temporary measure.
Rashed said there is full cooperation between the aviation and tourism ministries to open new markets and operate many of the lines that were suspended. 
Egypt's important tourism sector has been recovering after being badly hit by four years of political turmoil following the uprising which toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. 
The political instability witnessed after 2011 drove away tourists and foreign investors, major earners of foreign currency.
The tourism sector also received a severe blow following the downing of a Russian passenger plane in Sinai in October 2015, which killed all 224 people on board. 

Source: MENA