Egypt Tourist numbers down 54 % in April

Egypt suffered a 54 % drop in the number of incoming tourists in April compared to a year earlier, Egypt's statistics body CAPMAS said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

    The number of tourists who visited Egypt in April was 425,000, down from about 923,900 during the same month in 2015, mainly due to the drop in the numbers of visitors from the Russian Federation, Egypt's (Ahram Online) News reported, citing CAPMAS's statement.

    Egypt's tourism sector, which relies heavily on tourists from Russia, suffered a severe blow with the ban of passenger flights to Egypt following the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October which raised concerns about security at Egypt's airports.

    The crash of an Egyptair passenger plane over the Mediterranean on its way from Paris to Cairo last month is also likely to have hindered the recovery of the sector, according to international tourism experts.

    Only 13.2 % of incoming tourists hailed from Eastern Europe, 54 % of whom were from the Ukraine. The largest contingent, representing 35 % of total visitors, came from Western Europe, of which 36 % were from Germany. About 28 % of the tourists were from the Middle East, 30 % of whom were Saudi nationals. 

    Egypt welcomed more than 14.7 million tourists who visited the North African country in 2010, before the uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak in January 2011 and subsequent upheavals that led tourist numbers to drop to 9.8 million in 2011.