The Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled Al-Anani revealed that tourism revenues will reach about four billion dollars in 2020, down from 13.03 billion in the previous year, 2019, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely affected the sector.
He pointed out that "the number of tourists who visited Egypt reached about 3.5 million tourists in 2020, compared to 13.1 million in 2019, where we witnessed a remarkable year in terms of numbers and revenues, the first two months in 2020 were about eight percent higher in numbers and revenues, as 2.4 million tourists visited the country at that time", pointing out that "the goal currently is not to measure the number of tourists, but to say that Egypt is a safe tourist destination in light of the Corona crisis."
He said: "We are working to build a tourist reputation in order to push tourists to visit the country after the end of the Corona crisis, as the number of hotels that obtained licenses to operate according to the new controls after Corona reached about 700 out of a total of 1,200 hotels in Egypt."
"The foreign tourism occupancy rates in our hotels currently average between ten and 15 percent of the numbers of 2019," he said.
Egypt closed hotels in March, after the Corona crisis began, then reopened them after about two months, about 25 percent of the capacity, and that percentage later increased to 50 percent.
Source (Al-Arab London newspaper, Edited)
