Tourism bounces back in Egypt and Tunisia, says CiR

The latest analysis from CiR’s data arm Business Lounge, confirms earlier reports that tourism to the North African region – particularly Egypt and Tunisia – is bouncing back.

Egypt, for example, recorded strong growth of +20.1% passengers in August alone this year, followed by +13.4% increase in Q3 2017. Egypt’s top four airports also handled an additional 810,000 tourists in Q3, compared to the same period last year, states CiR.

Although passenger numbers slipped at the airports of Cairo (-0.5%) and Alexandria (-6.0%), Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh airports saw strong year-on-year increases of +84.6% and +55.0%, respectively.

While this increase in passenger numbers appears quite dramatic, the reason is clearly that it comes on the back of a very weak period for air traffic, says Garry Stasiulevicuis, Founder and President of CiR. “Nevertheless, they show that tourists are returning to the Red Sea, which is good news for duty free operators, as well as the entire resort industry.”