Number of Visitors Should Be Boosted by Archeological Findings

Due to restrictions related to Covid-19, the number of visitors arriving to Egypt dropped to 3.5 million in 2020, negatively impacting the sector. With the implementation of the vaccination campaign, the Egyptian government now expects a gradual recovery in arrivals.

Egypt is aiming for between $6 and $7 billion in tourism revenues by 2021. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Ghada Shalaby.

According to the official, in 2021 the country is expected to receive 60% of the number of visitors it had in 2019. This recovery of the sector will be helped by the reduction of restrictions related to Covid-19. Indeed, with the implementation of the vaccination campaign and the improvement of relations with its partners, Egypt has announced a gradual recovery of tourism activities.

In addition, Russia has announced the upcoming resumption of direct flights between Cairo and Moscow. This should help to achieve the goal of attracting more than one million Russian tourists during the rest of 2021. In addition, the announcement in January of the discovery of archaeological “treasures” of 110 tombs should create a new craze for tourism in Egypt.

Egyptian archaeologists working in the Nile Delta have uncovered dozens of rare pre-dynastic tombs dating to the period before Egypt’s Pharaonic kingdoms first emerged more than 5,000 years ago. They also found tombs from the later Hyksos period (1650 to 1500 BC) when Western Asian migrants took over the country, putting an end to Egypt’s Middle Kingdom.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country of the pharaohs has experienced a sharp decline in tourism revenues. Indeed, between the closure of borders, the suspension of flights and restrictive measures, the number of tourists fell from 13.1 million in 2019 to 3.5 million in 2020. This has led to a 70% drop in revenue in 2020. The income from the tourism sector generally constitutes nearly 15% of Egypt’s GDP.

Since mid-June 2020, Egypt has been on the list of risk countries of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (BAG). However, local authorities point out that traveling to the country is safe as strict measures are applied in the tourist centers. Currently, around 800 new corona infections are officially reported in the country per day (with 110 million inhabitants).