8 million tourists visited Egypt in 2012: Minister

[DJKeefy]

Tourism minister Hisham Zazou stated that he is concerned about the negative impact of political events on cultural tourism.

Around 8.1 million tourists visited Egypt over the past ten months, injecting some $10 billion into the economy, announced Minister of Tourism Hisham Zazou on Monday during the annual conference of the Scandinavian embassies in Cairo.

Zazou added that around 96 million overnight stays by tourists in Egyptian hotels were recorded in the same period.

Malin Karre, the Swedish ambassador in Cairo, said that Scandinavian tourists consider Egypt to be one of the best beach tourism destinations worldwide.

The Egyptian minister confirmed that beach tourism in the country has bottomed out, while cultural tourism in Luxor and Aswan is suffering due to the negative impacts of political events.

He hopes that the number of tourists will reach 11 million by the end of 2012.

Zazou referred to the tourism as a vital pillar of the national economy, representing 11.3 per cent of Egypt's gross domestic product and 17 per cent of its foreign currency reserves, in addition to 12.6 per cent of the total manpower of the state, with four million people directly employed in the industry.

Recently, Egypt's Coalition to Support Tourism (CST) has that said it will file a case against top Egyptian officials for inaction in response to statements by a Salafist sheikh who called for the demolition of the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.

In a television interview on Saturday night, radical Salafist scholar Morgan El-Gohary called for the destruction of Egypt's monuments as they "were once worshipped and could be worshipped again."

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/58020.aspx

[Who2]

8.1 million visitors and still they moan, bit like the english and weather, they should start seeing that their cups are half full rather than bleeding empty....

[Chocolate Eclair]

Were the hell did they go??

[FABlux]

Were the hell did they go??

The water! Beach or boats at a guess

[chiddy]

Red Sea

when we were there the other week in Hurghada the occupancy rate in hotels was reported to be 70% - mainly Russians

[BBLUX]

There certainly are more about this week in Luxor. This morning we went past the Colossi and there were 3 large coaches and several smaller tourist mini buses. On the way back at around midday there were at least 10-12 large coaches and almost as many minibus/taxi's in the car park. In fact it looked almost full! The camel rides have been out in force for the last two days as well. From what I could learn they are mostly German but we are seeing French as well.

[Bullet Magnet]

8.1 million visitors and still they moan, bit like the english and weather, they should start seeing that their cups are half full rather than bleeding empty....

Learn to dance in the rain, rather than sheltering and waiting for the clouds to pass... Sah ?

No Such thing as bad weather in Wales, just bad choices in clothing.

[Stevepj]

Demolishing the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx??? I read about that in the "Independent" and on the blog "Egyptian Chronicles" I have little doubt that given half a chance Mr El Gohary would go ahead with his plans. What a loon


Jonesy