Tourism

Tourism has long been an integral and major contributor to Egypt’s economy – reaching 11.3% of GDP in 2010 – as well as a ready source of foreign currency. Nevertheless, the 14.7m international visitors seen in 2010 had decreased by more than a third to 9.1m by 2013. Almost as worrying was Egypt’s 85th position among global tourism destinations ranked by the World Economic Forum. Yet, the Ministry of Tourism’s switch in emphasis to regional source markets paid off to such a degree that by mid-2014 it was forecasting 2m Arab visitors by the end of the year and an overall rise to 9.5m tourists despite a discouraging start. Continued stability is clearly key. The speed with which confidence returns to Egypt’s foreign source markets is impossible to predict. Retaining slightly over 9m tourists a year, even in the worst days, is perhaps a remarkable achievement and in any case a big base on which to build.