Youths swim at the sea to cool off on a hot day in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria yesterday.
DOHA: The tourist inflow into Egypt has been growing with Qataris ranking third among Arab tourist arrivals in the country, after visitors from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Some 2.5 million Arab tourists arrived in Egypt last year, and the country’s tourism ministry expects the number to soar to three million by this year-end. Arab tourist arrivals totalled only 1.8 million in 2011.
In the first quarter of this year (January to March), Arab tourist arrivals in Egypt totalled a little over 520,000, up 7.5 percent over the corresponding period of 2012, when the figure was 484,000.
Arab tourists have larger stays in Egypt as compared to their counterparts from the rest of the world, the average being 11 nights in 2011, Al Sharq reported yesterday, citing tourism ministry figures.
Arab tourists spent 7.4 million nights in Egypt in 2012, up 14.4 percent over the previous year, and their average spending per night was $83.7.
Egypt’s tourism minister, Hisham Zazou, said that his country banked more on tourists from the GCC countries and gave them much importance because the region contributed hugely to the tourism industry.
He said he expected tourist arrivals from the oil-rich GCC region to breach the one million-mark by year-end.
