Tourist visits to Egypt up on year during Q1 of 2012

Tourism is slowly regaining the number of annual tourist visits, says official exclusively to Ahram Online. Deputy Head of Tourism Vitalisation Office Sami Mahmoud announced on Saturday that 2.5 million tourists are estimated to have visited Egypt between January and March of 2012. This number reflects an increase in visits in comparison to last year, which counted 1.89 visits within the first three months. The highest number of tourists comes from Russia, followed by England, Italy, Germany and then Poland. Mahmoud further explained that the number of Arab tourists also increased from 296,980 visitors in the first three months of 2011 to 483,843 during the first three months of 2012. The year 2011 was exceptional, witnessing a revolution in January that caused a crisis on Egypt's tourism industry. Mahmoud added the number of tourists that visited Egypt in the first quarter of this year is still considered low, 30 percent less than 2010. Deputy Mahmoud stressed the importance of maintaining some political calm and stability so that tourism can gradually regain it's vitality. From: Ahram online