Egypt's Tourism Revenue Drops by 43 Percent in First Quarter

FILE - A man sits on his camel in front of the Pyramids at Giza, Egypt, July 13, 2013. (A. Arabasadi/VOA)

Egypt's tourism revenues dropped 43 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to $1.3 billion, Adela Ragab, the country's economic adviser to the minister of tourism, told Reuters on Wednesday.

The tourism sector, which has been damaged by the political instability that followed a popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, suffered another blow in
February when a coach carrying Korean tourists was bombed by extremists.

Ragab said around 15 countries issued travel warnings against Egypt after the incident, which contributed to a 30 percent drop in the number of tourists in the first quarter to
two million people.

The sector saw a 41 percent drop in revenue last year to $5.9 billion compared to the year earlier after hundreds were killed in the violence that followed the army's overthrow of democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi in July.