Moderate relaunch of Egypt tourism industry expected

Egypt tourism minister hopes country tourism will moderately grow this year, after global advertising campaign

The number of tourists that visited Egypt drastically dropped to 9.9 million last year, following the mass protest events against Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013.

Even though ever since the country has regained some stability, tourist numbers did not meet the usual, affecting Egypt's major source of income.

Egypt expects a slight growth to around 10 million tourists this year and $7.5-8 billion influx, as Minister Hisham Zaazou explained for Reuters:

"From January until the end of August the rise was very little, barely 5 percent.

"So if we move at the same rate the numbers will be around 10 million... or slightly higher.

"I cannot say that the general climate is positive but the figures show that there is a modest improvement."

The threatening presence of the Islamic State is also a big setback for Egyptian tourism, but Egyptian officials state that media exaggerated country's security threats, as the authorities made progress against militants.

To regain its known popularity, Egypt will engage in a global advertising campaign starting in November.

Despite past events and general destabilization, country's tourism industry has always managed to comeback. In the future, officials aim to better secure the territory to prevent incidents and change tourists view on the matter and will also focus on Red Sea resorts revival.

"I will focus on the bulk of tourist movement. While desert tourism is important, the highest figure for it was 350 thousand (people a year). Sharm El Sheikh, on the other hand, received more than 4 million tourists at some point, on its own. I am going to work on everything related to those areas, from securing them and all else. I will focus on starting there", Zaazou concludes.