Egypt seeks to raise $1 billion to support tourism

Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou announced on Wednesday that Egypt hopes to raise one billion dollars through an investment fund to support the country’s faltering tourism sector.

Jordan’s Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper quoted Zaazou as saying that the promotion campaign will likely begin in July and focus on the Gulf States. The fund is expected to raise $250 million by the next quarter and the remaining amount within a year.

More than 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010, but this number dropped to 9.8 million after the revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The sector picked up in 2012, attracting 11.5 million tourists, but then dropped again to 9.5 million visitors last year after the military coup on 3 July led to a crackdown and various attacks on tourist destinations.

Egypt is under increasing pressure to find sources of revenue to cover its ballooning budget deficit, which jumped 14 per cent last year. Its foreign reserves have also dipped to a critical low and its tourism revenue plunged 43 per cent to $1.3 billion in the first quarter of this fiscal year.