Egypt suspends issuance of licenses for new travel agencies for 1 year

CAIRO – 12 January 2021: Minister of Tourism and Artifacts Khaled al-Anany issued Tuesday a decree suspending the issuance of licenses for establishing new travel agencies for a year because the country does not need more of them at this stage.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has celebrated 200 destinations given its Safe Travel Stamp, including Egypt.

The stamp was developed to enable travellers to identify destinations and businesses around the world which have adopted hygiene protocols.

The Safe Travel protocols were designed to standardize health and safety across the hospitality and travel industries.

Egypt’s tourism revenues dipped by $2.7 billion in the fiscal year of 2019/2020, recording $9.9 billion, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). 

CBE clarified in a report that the decline in the travel receipts caused a drop in the services surplus by 31.2 percent to reach $9 billion in 2019/20, compared to $13 billion in prior year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected Egypt’s losses in tourism revenues to exceed 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) during 2020 due to COVID-19 crisis.

A total of 102.8 million tourists visited Egypt during the past 10 years, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

The number of tourists coming to Egypt from different countries reached 14.7 million in 2010 compared to 9.8 million in 2011, recording a 49.6 percent decline. However, a 17.1 percent increase from 2011 was recorded the following year, with the 11.5 million tourists registered in 2012.

The numbers of incoming tourists to Egypt have witnessed unstable rate over the years.

et displays in the below lines the numbers of tourists registered as shows in the following numbers:

2010: 14.7 million tourists were registered

2011: 9.8 million tourists were registered

2012: 17.1 million tourists were registered

2013: 11.5 million tourists were registered

2014: 9.9 million tourists were registered

2015: 9.3 million tourists were registered

2016: 5.4 million tourists were registered

2017: 8.3 million tourists were registered

2018: 11.3 million tourists were registered

2019: 13 million tourists were registered

2020: 9.5 million tourists were registered

The statistics indicated that European tourists accounted for the largest share of tourists coming to Egypt during the past 10 years, as their number reached 70.7 million tourists, 68.8 percent of the total number of tourists, followed by Arabs recording 21.9 million tourists with a 21.3 percent, then 6.6 million tourists from other countries with a 6.4 percent, and finally 3.6 million American tourists recording 3.5 percent of the total number of tourists.

The value of Egypt's revenues from tourism sector during the past 10 years, according to the Central Bank of Egypt data, reached 84.3 billion dollars, stated CAPMAS.