Tourism: Egypt's tops tourist destination in Mideast, North Africa

Egypt State Information Service

Egypt has become the top tourist destination among Middle East and North Africa countries and is the world's 24th most attractive tourist destination, according to a report by Minister of Tourism Zuhir Garana.

The report, which was forwarded to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, said that the Ministry of Tourism has drawn up an ambitious plan to increase tourist revenues to 12 billion Egyptian pounds by 2011, attract up to 14 million tourists and create some 1.2 million job opportunities.

The report said that tourist revenues constitute 11.3 percent of Egypt's GDP, 40 percent of Egypt's non-commodity exports and 19.3 percent of Egypt's earnings of foreign currency.

The new strategy is based on increasing Egypt's tourist potentials, honing its competitive edge, taping new markets and diversifying tourist destinations in addition to luring tourists to unconventional markets and improving services.

It showed that Egypt attracts 23 percent of tourists coming to the Middle East region, 1.2 percent of the size of international tourism, one percent of international tourist revenues.

In 2007, 11 million tourists visited Egypt, spending a total of 112 tourist nights and bringing to Egypt 9.5 billion dollars in earnings, the report said.