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Egypt tourism fell last year, set to recover 2010
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Egypt, home to the pyramids of Giza, recorded a slower-than-anticipated decline in tourism revenue last year and is targeting 6.9 percent growth in receipts in 2010 as economic recovery picks up, the tourism minister said.
Revenue in 2009 declined 2 percent to $10.76bn from $10.98bn in the previous year, Zoheir Garranah said in a news conference on Monday in Cairo.
“All expectations were that the decline in tourism would be 20 percent,” he said. The government aims to bring in about $11.5bn in revenue this year, he said.
The Egyptian economy depends on tourism, foreign direct investment and the Suez Canal for foreign currency. The economy of the most populous Arab country expanded 4.7 percent in the fiscal year that ended in June, beating the International Monetary Funds forecasts. The government said it expects the economy to expand about five percent in the current fiscal year.
EFG-Hermes Holding, Egypts biggest publicly traded investment bank, had forecast 2009 tourism revenue of $10.63bn. Beltone Financial, another Cairo-based investment bank, had a forecast of $10.6bn.
Tourist arrivals dropped 2.3 percent to 12.5 million in 2009, the government said in January. The ministry aims to increase the number of tourist arrivals to 14 million in 2010, Garranah said. Initially in the news conference, he said the ministry would reach that target by 2011.
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| Time Added : 2010-02-08 14:42:48 |
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