12.04.2011                      08.Nisan, 5771

Ägypten:

Tourists still avoiding Egypt like the plague

Egypt's vital tourism industry, crippled by political turmoil, will suffer a 25% drop in revenue in 2011 and will need until September to get back on track, according to its tourism minister.

The popular uprising that forced out President Hosni Mubarak saw much of Egypt's economy grind to a halt and slashed tourism revenue for February by more than half. March figures fell by 60% from last year, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said. With its pharaonic antiquities and year-round warm beaches, Egypt relies on tourism as its top foreign currency earner, the source of over a tenth of gross domestic product. It provides one in eight jobs in a country beset by high unemployment….