Nisf El Donia, p.13, (17/8/2008)

The Indian tourism grows by 18% in Egypt

By: Mohammad Monir

According to latest statistics, the Egyptian tourist and archeological sites started to attract more Indian tourists given the growing desire of many Indian young men to find new destinations to spend their vacations instead of going to South East Asia.

Figures show that the number of Indian tourists has been growing over the past few years. It was said that the number of Indian tourists during 2008 exceeded 100000 after it was 84000 in 2007 with an increase of 18.6%.

Reports stated that the total number of Indian tourists has reached one million tourists. In statements published on the UNI website, Samy Mahmoud, a tourist advisor in India said that the total number of Indian tourists is predicted to reach 25 million before 2020 and Egypt is doing its best to have a share of this huge number.

He added that Egypt is promoting its tourism in India. Egypt also declared the year 2008 "the year of India" so as to boost tourism. During this year, several events related to India would be organized to attract Indian tourists. 

With the aim of attracting more and more tourists, Egypt introduced attractive packages costing between 36000 to 60000 for each tourist. The package included accommodation in different parts of Egypt and domestic transportations.

Samy said that about 40% of the Indian tourists coming to Egypt are from Mumbai and 25% from Delhi.