How has Egypt’s tourism sector performed post-2011 uprising?

5.9 million tourists visited Egypt for the first nine months of 2017, Reuters reported yesterday citing a government official. This marks a 31 percent increase in the number of tourists compared to the whole of 2016. 

Visitor numbers and the tourism sector's direct contribution to Egypt's gross domestic product (GDP) has not recovered since 2011 when the mass uprising erupted across the country. Since then, Egypt has suffered from political and economic uncertainties that has impacted its tourism sector. 

The most recent hit to the sector was the October 31, 2015 bombing of a Russian plane by the Islamic State that killed all 224 people on board soon after take-off from Sharm el Sheikh airport in the Sinai Peninsula.

Tourist numbers to the popular beach resort plunged as Russia imposed restrictions on all flights to Egypt and the United Kingdom suspended flights to Sharm el Sheikh. 

A government official told Reuters in September that Egypt hoped the number of tourists would reach 8 million this year from 4.5 million in 2016. 

(Data note: Data for direct contribution to GDP is obtained from the World Travel & Tourism Council, which approaches the indicator as total spending within a particular country on travel and tourism by residents and non-residents for business and leisure purposes, including government spending on travel and tourism services directly linked to visitors, such as cultural (e.g. museums)) or recreational (e.g. national parks). The direct contribution of travel and tourism to GDP is calculated to be consistent with the output, as expressed in National Accounting, of tourism-characteristic sectors such as hotels, airlines, airports, travel agents and leisure and recreation services that deal directly with tourists, according to the WTTC.) 

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