Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy revealed that total inbound tourism to Egypt grew by 4% from January to the first week of June compared with the same period of 2025, despite challenges resulting from regional events.
He added that the ministry made adjustments to flight incentive programs to tackle some cancellations and launched incentive initiatives that helped limit the expected decline, with negative estimates falling from 20% to less than 8%.
Speaking at a press conference held today after the General Assembly meeting of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, he noted that the increase in tourist spending, ranging from 30% to 40%, has been affected by global political developments and crises, which has had an impact on the volume of spending.
Fathy stressed that global tourism faces several problems, most importantly land, sea and air transport, amid rising fuel prices and the cost of insuring flights, and consequently higher airfares. The crisis has even become one of fuel availability, not just its price, prompting airlines to turn to shorter flights or destinations far from areas of conflict and war.
The tourism minister explained that the ministry succeeded in retaining a large share of inbound air traffic to Egypt and launched incentive initiatives in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation for the next three months, as they are the most affected by the regional crisis.
