Egypt sees 6% increase in visitors from KSA

Growth in visitors from Saudi Arabia comes as the tourist board recently launched ‘This is Egypt' campaign (#thisisegypt), a regional campaign, to drive growth in the tourism sector from the Middle East.

The Egypt Tourism Authority (ETA) has reported a 6% increase in visitors from Saudi Arabia in January and February compared to the same period in 2015.

Approximately 55,582 air travellers from Saudi Arabia entered Egypt during this period in 2015, and 12 months later this figure reached 59,000.

Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi tourism counsellor Ahmed Ali Ismail commented: "We are extremely pleased to report the upturn in visitor numbers from our sister GCC countries. We have several strategies and incentives in place to grow the GCC market, including new visa regulations, which were brought in at the end of 2015, allowing all nationalities with a minimum six-month residency for GCC countries to gain a visa on arrival in Egypt."

He added: "We hope to continue to strengthen and build on the visitor numbers from the region and are working closely with travel operators and other stakeholders to explore all means of nurturing this growth."