Egypt must work harder to revive tourism after setbacks

Egypt will have to work 10 times harder to revive its tourism industry, Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed said on Sunday, after a series of setbacks including the crash of an EgyptAir flight into the Mediterranean three days ago.

Rashed sought to play down the impact of the crash on Egypt's image. All 66 people on board the plane are believed to have died and the reason for the crash is not yet clear.

"The efforts that we need to put are maybe 10 times what we planned to put in place but we need to focus on our ability to drive business back to Egypt to change the image of Egypt," said Rashed from his office overlooking the River Nile.

"What we need to understand is this is an incident that could have taken place anywhere. Aviation incidents happen, unfortunately."

Egypt's tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and a critical source of hard currency, has struggled to rebound since the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule ushered in a period of political and economic upheaval.

The number of tourists fell 40 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to last year due in large part to the suspected bombing of a Russian plane carrying 224 people from a Red Sea resort in late October.