Some 500k tourists visited Egypt in 1Q2021, generating USD 600-800 mn in tourism revenues, Deputy Tourism Minister Ghada Shalabi told Sky News Arabia on Thursday.

For comparison: This is roughly on par with the USD 800 mn brought in by the sector in 3Q2020, and is a lot better than the USD 80-150 mn monthly average seen through 2020. And some 2 mn tourists have visited the country in the nine months since flights restarted following the initial wave of the virus.

Recovery 2022? Bank of America said last month it expects Egypt’s tourism revenues to recover to USD 7 bn next year, after plummeting by 70% in 2020. While the numbers of tourists visiting Egypt shrank to 3.6 mn from 13 mn in 2019, El Anany recently said Egypt could see a return to pre-covid visitor numbers as early as fall 2022.

Local businesses are still getting a helping hand: The government last week extended for an additional six months a debt, tax, and utilities holiday for tourism companies and businesses originally introduced in April 2020, while the civil aviation and tourism ministries have extended a campaign to promote domestic winter tourism until 15 May.