Tourism declined 33 percent: Egypt's Minister
The number of tourists who visited Egypt in 2011 declined 33 percent from 2010, Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said on Sunday. In 2010, 14.7 million tourists visited the country.
Abdel Nour attributed the decrease to deteriorating security conditions in the country, particularly after the country's police forces retreated from the cities in late January.
The 2011 figures showed that revenues from tourism were US$8.8 billion, compared to $12.5 billion in 2010.
Tourism accounted for more than a tenth of Egypt's gross domestic product before this year's upheaval. It employed an estimated an eighth of the population’s workforce in a country of high unemployment.
Tourism is also a crucial source of much-needed foreign currency in Egypt. Analysts say that one of the country's most pressing problems is the ongoing decline in foreign reserves, a phenomenon which could lead to rampant inflation.
According to the central bank, foreign reserves have fallen to 18 billion dollars from 36 billion dollars at the beginning of 2011.
Almasry Alyoum
Video
Spot Lights
BBC SportWhen it's put to him that he might be the most talented athlete in the world to hold a racquet, a bashful Ramy Ashour admits "that's pretty great".The 25-year-old Egyptian is more than just the current squash world number one - his elastic, unorthodox brilliance and charisma could be the key to squash breaking out beyond its four walls and regaining a place on the wider sporting
Ministers in Prime Minister Hisham Qandil's cabinet following the recent reshuffle (new appointees are in italics): 1. Minister of Agriculture Ahmed Mahmoud Ali El-Gizawi2. Minister of Antiquities Ahmed Eissa3. Minister of Aviation Wael Maadawi4. Minister of Communication Atef Helmy5. Minister of Culture
AP— April 15, 2013: Two bombs explode in the packed streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 140.— January 17, 2011: A backpack bomb is placed along a Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Washington, meant to kill and injure participants in a civil rights march, but is found and disabled before it can explode. White
The convenient marriage between Iran and the Arab left would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, given the traditional ideological paradoxes between patriarchal Persian Shiism, on the one hand, and leftist orthodoxy on the other.Indeed, a casual viewer of Hizbullah's Al-Manar television, or the Iranian-funded Al-Mayadin TV, these days would probably think that the two Shia propaganda
