Polish tourists accounted for more than 121,000 of the 4.3 mn visitors Egypt welcomed in 2017, Polish Tourism Chamber head Paul Niewiadomski announced yesterday, Egypt Independent reports. That makes it the sixth-largest tourism market for Egypt, Niewiadomski said at the Polish Chamber of Tourism’s annual conference in Marsa Alam. Tourism Promotion Authority head Hisham El Demery had announced in August that Ukrainian and Polish tourist arrivals jumped 120% y-o-y in 1H2017, but had not provided the number of visitors from either country.

“Tourists appear to be coming back to Egypt’s plethora of attractions” after several years, Public Radio International’s Salma Islam says. While the tourism industry has yet to recover to pre-2011 levels, Egypt is “on course to welcome 8 mn tourists by year’s end,” according to the UN World Tourism Organization. The uptick in tourist activity — which can be seen in several cities across the country including Luxor — comes as the Tourism Ministry has been promoting alternative Red Sea destinations, offering incentives to tour operators, and flying in celebrities such as Lionel Messi for publicity. Islam also notes that many countries “traditionally deemed safe, like France, Germany and the UK, have also seen an increased number of terror attacks on their soil over the past two years.” This may have helped reduce tourists’ concerns about Egypt’s safety situation.