Egypt’s Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour told reporters in Cairo this month that the country will most likely experience a 25% fall in tourism revenues this year as a result of the collapse of the country’s tourism industry – following the near three-weeks of protests which led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel Nour said that tourism numbers were off by 60% in March but he hopes that this will return to some semblance of normality by September, although hotel occupancy rates in the key Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh are still below 40%. 

Egypt generated tourism revenues of around $12.5bn in 2010 and Abdel Nour told reporters that the essential message that the country must now get across is that it is a safe place to visit.