Egypt sees more tourists in January, visits average fewer nights

Egypt welcomed 5.5 percent more tourists in January 2015 than in the same period of the previous year though outbound tourists reported staying fewer nights, state statistics body CAPMAS reported on Wednesday.
Egypt’s tourism sector has seen a relative recovery in the past year, after being hit hard by protests and regime change in 2011 and again in 2013.

The country welcomed over 688,000 visitors throughout the month of January, nearly 40 percent of which were from eastern European countries, 33 percent from western Europe, and only 16 percent from the Middle East, said the report.

However, the total number of nights spent by tourists fell by 23 percent year-on-year to 6.8 million nights, said the report, averaging about 9.6 nights per tourist, compared with 13 nights per tourist in January 2014.

Industry sources have complained that the falling ruble has affected inbound tourism from Russia and eastern Europe, from which a large portion of Egypt’s beach tourists hail.

The tourism sector is one of Egypt’s most important sources of vital foreign currency.