Tourism in Egypt on the rise again

Egypt's tourism industry seems to be recovering well from the unrest of last year, with data for the first half of 2012 showing year-on-year growth of 27%.

The country's minister for tourism, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, has revealed that more than 5.24 million people visited Egypt in the first six months of this year and the overall figure for 2012 is expected to be around 12 million.

That would represent a rise in visitor numbers of 23% from last year and Mr Abdel Nour was bullish about the African nation's tourism prospects when discussing the statistics at a press conference in Cairo.

"'I expect that the second half of the year will witness great recovery in tourism," he said.

Toursim in Egypt is improving after the period of instability following the removal of former president Hosni Mubarak from office, and the minister also indicated that the election of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi should not have an adverse effect.