Tourism

Egypt has many attractions such as: Alexandria, Khan al-Khalili market Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Pyramids of Giza, Old Cairo, Luxor temple, Siwa Oasis, Abu Simbel, Nubian Museum of Aswan, Alexandria, Valley of the Kings, Karnak temples and Sharm El sheikh. Also Hurghada, the White Desert and the Nile River have many felucca rides and Nile cruises.

Egypt's Minister of Tourism, Zoheir Garranah claims that Egypt is the world's 24th most appealing tourist destination and the first in Middle East. Of all the tourists that travel to the Middle East, 23% are tourists visiting Egypt. In 2007, 11 million tourists traveled to Egypt and brought US$9.5 billion in revenue. For 2008, the Minister estimates that his books report totals of 12.85 million to 12.9 million visitors. Garranah has also announced his ambitious strategies to raise the number of Egyptian tourists to 14 million by the end of 2011, which will require 240,000 hotel beds. Increasing the amount of tourists around Egypt is vital, seeing is that the nation’s tourism earnings account for 11.3% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Tourism in Egypt's economy is constantly increasing, in 1990 income for tourism grew from US$800 million in 1985 to over US$2.5 billion. The number of visitors doubled during the same time span from 1.3 million to 2.5 million. Minister Garranah reveals that Egypt’s economy is booming but due to the economic crisis there was an unanticipated 2.8% decrease. Prior to the crisis year-to-date growth until November shows an 18 percent increase over last year. In September, tourism grew by 11 percent. In October, it was 12 percent. If it had not been for the economic crisis we would have continued producing 1.2 million per month. In spite of the crisis, Egypt maintains a healthy growth. The World Trade Organization has predicted that by 2020, Egypt will be the leading tourism receiving nation in all of Africa. __http://www.wttc.org/eng/Tourism_Research/Tourism_Economic_Research/Country_Reports/Egypt/__ __http://www1.american.edu/TED/egypt.htm__ __ [] __ __[]__ [|http://ezinearticles.com/?Egypt-Attractions---Top-10-Tourist-Attractions-of-Egypt&id=824706] []

