The recent mass protests against President Mubarak's 30-year rules of the country have raised fears that Egypt's all-important tourism industry will be affected.

However it is reported that the main tourist sites within Cairo remain undisturbed by the incidents, as well as popular resort destination such as Sharm-el Sheikh and others located at the Red Sea.

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Travel warnings are issued by Japan, Australian, the UK and several other European countries for traveler to remain in-door and do not go out for unnecessary trips. It is also advice to avoid the demonstration areas.

Egypt's tourism scale:

Till 2011 Egypt's purpose is to receive 14 million of tourists on year, the increasing of the hotel rooms from 175,000 in present, to 240,000 in the next four years.

This will involve the apparition of 1.2 million jobs.

Chart source: Euromonitor

Egypt Tourism¹

Having so many attractions and such an amazing history, there is no wonder that in Egypt tourism is the economy's engine and the main method of bringing money to the country's budget. Aiming to promote Egypt as a world's very important touristic destination, the country's government increased the investments in the Egyptian tourism, in the latest years.

There were also developments in the tourism's sectors such as: ICT infrastructure, marketing and human resources. More, new tourism's branches appeared: shopping tourism, therapeutic tourism and sports tourism.

The statistics showed that 86% from Egypt's visits were for recreational tourism.

4.13 billion LE (US$724 million) were invested in Egypt's tourism in 2006-2007, the same period when almost 10 million foreign visitors brought US$ 8 billion to the country's budget. More than 80% of tourists were coming from Europe.

Still, the Egyptian tourism secretary, Zoheir Garranah, says that Egypt hasn't touched yet the determined purposes regarding the tourism. One impediment were the terrorist attacks from Taba, in October 2004 (when 34 people died), from Charm el-Cheikh in july 2005 (with 70 deaths) and from Dahab in April 2006 (when 20 people died), attacks that seriously affected the Sinai's spas.

The European tourists are the most numerous ones who visit Egypt, the British people being on the first place of the top, followed by the Russians. The Arab tourists, especially from the Persian Gulf, are also visiting Egypt very often, with 21 percents from the total number of tourists. 

LE41.8 billion are stipulated to be invested in tourism, from the private sector, in the next five years. More, the WTO (World Tourism Organization) estimates that in 2020 the number of the tourists coming from China and India in Egypt it will touch about 150 million persons. 

More very important touristic projects are in plan for the Red Sea zone, for Marsa Alam and on the Egypt's North Coast, projects that include residential units, recreational parks and luxurious hotels. ITR (International Tourism Revenues) is estimated to reach 12 billion US$, and Egypt's ITA (International Tourist Arrivals) 14 million US$, in the next four years.

But, to touch all of these targets, the Egypt's government works very seriously to improve the tourism's facilities, to modernize the aviation infrastructure and to develop the airports

The Tourism Sustainable Development Plan is a program implemented by The Egypt's Ministry of Tourism with the purpose of improvement of the tourism till 2020. 

All these plans and projects show that Egypt's tourism will continue to play the main role in the well function of the country's economy.

1- Source: egypt-cairo.com