Egypt competing with Spain for dwindling tourists

"For Egypt, 99 percent of the tourists who visit arrive by plane. It is a cost."

The Egyptian Central Bank said Sunday revenue from tourism in the first quarter of the 2008/09 fiscal year, which started in July, rose 15.2 percent to some $3.3 billion (£2.2 billion).

The Egyptian government has set its target for economic growth for the two years starting July 2008 at 5.5 percent, after a 7.2 percent growth in the 2007/08 fiscal year.

Reham El-Desouki, a senior economist at investment bank Beltone Financial, said tourism revenue for the entire fiscal year could stay unchanged at $10.6 billion.

Tourism represents 6.6 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product and is the Arab country's main hard currency earner, followed by worker remittances at $8.4 billion, Desouki said.

Nour said the expected slowdown in the number of visitors in 2009 should force a shift in policy to focus on promoting Egypt as an affordable destination for middle-class families.

A television advertisement that appears on key networks such as CNN promotes Egypt as a land whose best feature is its warm and sunny weather.

"Will the European who got fired, or is afraid of being fired, or got a pay cut ... will he think of coming because I am telling him the sun here is nice? He will not come," Nour said. "This concept has to be changed."

(Writing by Alaa Shahine; editing by Tony Austin)