Egypt receives 50K Iraqi tourists in Q1 of 2018

CAIRO – 28 April 2018: Egypt received 50,000 Iraqi tourists in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018, Reda Dawoud, head of a travel agency said Saturday, expecting the number to reach 400,000 by the end of 2018.

He said in press statements that there is a big demand in Iraq to visit Egypt, adding that there is a rise in tourist reservations from the Arab Maghreb region, especially Algeria.

Meanwhile, he said that the number of Lebanese tourists visiting Egypt will see a remarkable boom during this year and that the number of flights from Lebanon to Egypt reached 40 a week.

Tourism in Egypt has been picking up recently, with Egypt’s tourism revenues jumping 211.8 per cent year-on-year to $5.3 billion in the first nine months of 2017, compared to $1.7 billion the year before.

The number of tourists who visited Egypt in that time jumped 55.3 per cent to 5.9 million, with European visitors reaching 3.2 million, an 85 percent increase from the previous year.

Tourism is expected to receive a boost during 2018 with the return of Russian flights to Cairo, which was resumed on April 12 after more than two years of halting flights to Egypt on the back of the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai in late 2015.

Tourism is one of Egypt’s main foreign currency earners, but it has suffered several blows since the 25 January Revolution of 2011.

Flotation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016 has benefited tourism as Egypt has now become a cheaper destination for many tourists around the world.

Despite the pickup in tourism, the numbers are still below the peak level of 2010 when 14 million tourists visited the country, generating $12.5 billion in revenues.