Egypt experiences 9.3 % decrease of tourist arrivals in October

The number of tourists visiting Egypt in October 2015 decreased by 9.3 percent compared to October 2014, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said on Tuesday in its October report.

The biggest number of holidaymakers was those coming from Eastern Europe, with 39.7 percent of the total, of whom 71 percent were Russian.

The next largest group was from Western European, with 35.5 percent of the total, followed by the Middle East.
An October 31 plane crash that killed 224 passengers and crew aboard a Russian plane departing from Sharm el-Sheikh is expected to negatively affect the tourism sector.

Following the crash, the United Kingdom and Russia announced they would suspend flights to the Red Sea resort pending the outcome of an investigation into the cause of the crash; the Kremlin later stated that the crash was caused by a bomb placed inside the cabin of the flight.

The decisions by Russia and the UK to halt their flights to Egypt have resulted in financial losses estimated at 2.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($275 million), Egypt’s Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou said in a news conference last week.