The number of tourists who visited Egypt in May dropped by more than 51% compared to the same month the previous year, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said Tuesday (July 12th).
Around 432,000 tourists visited Egypt this May, down from around 895,000 in May 2015, Egypt's Ahram Online reported.
The decrease is largely due to a 61% drop in Russian tourists.
Russia indefinitely suspended passenger flights to Egypt following the October downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai. The "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Despite the decrease in overall tourists, the number of Arab tourists coming to Egypt increased by almost 20% compared to the same month last year.
More than one-third of May's tourists hailed from Arab countries, 31% of whom were Saudi nationals, CAPMAS said.
The increase in Arab tourists follows an Egyptian campaign targeting travelers from the Gulf states in an attempt to revive its ailing tourism industry.
