Egypt sees major increase in tourism revenues: Minister

CAIRO, Feb 2 (Xinhua) :Egypt saw a major increase in tourism revenues in 2014 compared to that of previous years, Egyptian tourism minister Hisham Zaazou said Sunday.
Zaazou told reporters in Cairo that the revenues from tourism in 2014 rose to 7.5 billion U.S dollars from 5.9 billion the previous years, marking a 27 per cent increase.
The minister also said that Egypt saw ten million tourists last year, while in 2013 the number is 9.5 million.
The North African country is striving to revive the ailing tourism industry, once a key source of income which has notably deteriorated for the past four years, after the 2011 political turmoil that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
Anti-government terror attacks by Islamist militants have led many countries to warn their residents of travelling to Egypt.
However, numbers of tourists jumped notably last summer after several European countries lifted travel warnings against Egypt's popular Red Sea resorts in the Sinai Peninsula, whose northern part is a hotbed for terrorists.
Meanwhile, the minister pointed out that tourists' per night spending average increased to 80 dollars as well.