Friday, July 21, 2006

Tourism in Egypt

"Encouraged by the rapid growth of the tourism sector in Egypt, the government is trying not only to attract more tourists but also to encourage international tourism giants to increase their business in Egypt and to attract more foreign investment in this field based on the following facts:
- Egypt saw rapid growth in tourism of 18.4 percent in 2004, the fastest in the Middle East, and was the destination for 19.1 percent of all Middle East international tourist arrivals.
- Tourism provides a significant contribution to Egypt's economy. The hotels and restaurants segment of the industry accounted for 2.8 percent of Egypt's GDP in 2004, and the total direct and indirect impact of tourism on the economy is about 11.3 percent of GDP. The sector employs around 12.6 percent of all Egyptian labor.
- Investment in the industry increased by 18.4 percent in 2004, reaching $500 million.
- Tourism is the second-largest source of foreign earnings with 23.4 percent of total receipts.
- Receipts from tourism reached $5.5 billion in 2004, an increase of 44.2 percent from a year earlier.
- International tourist arrivals increased to 8.1 million in 2004, 34.1 percent higher than in 2003.
Investing in tourism will give the investor the privilege of low infrastructure costs, income and sales tax exemption (in free zones areas), only 5 percent custom duties on imported machinery, the use of 14 efficiently managed commercial seaports and access to 232,000 university graduates annually."
See the above article for the full story.

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