The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) says the country’s efforts to improve security infrastructure helped drive up visits 16.5% last year.
According to the WTTC, this has in turn allowed major operators to return to popular destinations such as Sharm el Sheikh.
Direct flights to Sharm are still banned by the UK government after a Russian aircraft was bombed shortly after taking off from Sharm.
However, besides the UK and Russia, the world’s wider tourism community has returned to the Red Sea resort.
It comes after a record year of growth for travel and tourism in Egypt, up 54.8%, with the sector now supporting 2.5 million jobs.
“Although the sector has not yet fully recovered to pre-crisis levels, the size of the Egyptian travel economy in 2018 (USD $29.6 billion) is the healthiest it has been since 2010,” said the WTTC.
Egypt’s largest inbound markets in 2018 were Germany (13%), Russia (12%), the UK (7%), Saudi Arabia (6%) and Italy (3%).
The WTTC’s 2018 research found travel and tourism in Egypt grew 16.5% last year, significantly ahead of a global average of 3.9%.
The sector contributed 11.9% of Egypt’s GDP last year, and is expected to grow a further 5.4% this year.
Egyptian minster for tourism Dr Rania al-Mashat last year spoke of creating at least one job in the travel sector for every household in the country while ensuring every job created in travel and tourism has a knock-on supportive effect for a further three jobs.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and chief executive, said: “We’re delighted to see the strong recovery of the Egyptian travel sector – a sector crucial to national economic growth and a key provider of jobs.
"WTTC also acknowledges Dr Rania al-Mashat’s prioritisation of the sector and strategy to use the sector to enrich citizens and spread the benefits of travel and tourism across the country.”
