CAIRO, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The tourism sector in Egypt is on the way toward recovery and the current indicators and statistics are more positive, said the chief of the country's tourism promotion authority in a statement on Tuesday.
"Despite the lack of British tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh resort and Russian tourists in the whole country, other tourist markets are currently flourishing and tremendously growing in Egypt," said Hisham al-Demery, Chairman of Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board (ETPB).
He noted that European visitors used to take up 75 percent of tourism in Egypt, but they recently declined to 50 or 60 percent after more tourists from Eastern Europe and Asia started to enter Egypt.
"The number of tourists coming to Egypt in the winter season rose up to 54 percent compared to last year, which is a good indicator that tourism in Egypt is on the way to recover in the light of the current political, social and economic stability," said the ETPB chief.
Egypt has been suffering tourism recession over the past few years due to political instability and relevant security challenges that almost cut the total number of tourists to half.
A Russian plane crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which killed over 200 in late October 2015, led Russia, Britain and some other Western states to ban their citizens from visiting Egypt. The plane fall was claimed by a Sinai-based militant group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group.
The situation further deteriorated after the ambiguous death of an Italian student in Cairo in February 2016, in addition to a tragic crash of an EgyptAir flight in the Mediterranean Sea in May that killed all 66 passengers on board including 15 French.
The tourism recession greatly affected the most populous Arab country's economy as it is one of Egypt's main sources of national income and foreign currency reserves, with about four million Egyptians employees working in the industry.
