Egypt: $800 million, half million tourists in 2021 first quarter

Half million tourists visited Egypt in 2021 first quarter, which made the tourism revenue amounted to 600-800 million dollars.

Last week, Minister of Tourism Khaled Al-Anani and Vice Minister for Tourism Ghada Shalaby revealed that the number of tourists who have come to Egypt since resuming air travel last July has reached two million.

The revenues are believed to continue in rising, according to a Bank of America report last month, which expected revenues to recover to $ 7 billion next year, after falling by 70% in 2020. The number of tourists decreased to 3.6 million from 13 million in 2019.

Nonetheless, Al-Anani expects the return of high figures, that it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, by fall 2022.

On its part, the government continues supporting the sector amid the pandemic as the Cabinet approved, last week, renewing all necessary measures to support the sector, which were announced for the first time in April 2020.

The measures include exempting real estate, used in the tourism and hotel fields, or belonging to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, from real estate tax.

Moreover, the measures also include reducing the landing and accommodation fees for aircraft at airports in the tourist governorates.

Last January, the government launched an initiative to support Winter Tourism.