Wednesday, May 16, 2012
CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)-- The number of tourists coming to Egypt jumped 73.2% to 927,000 in March 2012, compared to 535,000 in the same month a year earlier as the impact of the country's uprising last year began to fade, data from the government's official statistics agency showed Wednesday.
Despite the increase in tourist numbers in March 2012, the numbers did not reach the highs of 2010 when 1.3 million tourists visited Egypt in the same month, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics said in its emailed statement.
The total number of nights spent by tourists stood at 10.2 million in March 2012, against 4.1 million a year earlier, CAPMAS said.
Earlier this month, the minister of tourism Mounir Fakhry Abd Elnour, said Egypt experienced a 32% surge in tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2012, compared with a year ago and expects visitors to the Arab country this year to hit levels last seen in 2010, before the revolution.
-By Farah Halime; Contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +20111 4994453
Fhalime@gmail.com
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
16-05-12 0836GMT
