The Travel and tourism industry provides a substantial contribution to the Egyptian Economy, with a total contribution of 374.6 billion Egyptian pounds (EGP) to GDP, which is equivalent to a share of 11% of the GDP in 2017. The industry is estimated to make a total contribution of over 600 billion EGP to the Egyptian economy in 2028.
The direct contribution of travel and tourism to the GDP in Egypt was close to 200 billion EGP in 2017, and is estimated to rise by 4.5 percent from 2018 to 2028 to 289.7 billion EGP. This reflects an increase in the level of economic activity created by industries such as hotels, travel agents and airlines, including the activities of the restaurant and leisure industries directly benefited by tourism. The industry also had a considerable effect on employment, in 2017, where the sector directly contributed with more than 1.09 million jobs.
In 2016, Egypt experienced the lowest number of tourist arrivals after the crash of the Russian plane in 2015. The figures for the year 2017 show that the tourism sector is on the rise again following its decline in the aftermath of the 2011 political uprising. In 2017, the number of tourist arrivals was over to eight million, down from 14.05 million in 2010. In 2017, the highest number of tourist arrivals were from European countries with around five million tourists, followed by tourists from the Arab league member states and the United States. The political events in Egypt have drastically affected the occupancy rate of hotels and similar establishments in Egypt which suffered a fall from 76 percent in 2008 to 31 percent in 2016.
In January 2018, Rania Al-Mashat was appointed Egypt’s first female Tourism Minister. Since then, Egypt has adopted a comprehensive plan to reform its tourism industry and intensified its efforts in promoting sustainable tourism, receiving the Global Champion Award from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in April 2019.
