Tourism

- 5% of GDP

- 8% of Total Employment

- Western Europe is Egypt's largest tourist market, accounting for 2/3s of total arrivals in recent years.

- Tourism attracted 4.65 million visitors and generated an estimated $3.8 billion in 2001.

- Tourists visiting for leisure and entertainment outnumber those visiting for cultural and historical sightseeing.

- Cairo is the main tourist destination, followed by the Red Sea and South Sinai.

- External factors affecting tourism growth include political instability, impact of euro/dollar relation on hotel prices, foreign competition, and outbreaks of violence in the region.

- The government has ambitions to increase tourism to 12% of GDP over the next 5 years by expanding accommodation capacity and increasing hotel privatization. This will offer significant opportunities for hotel management companies.

- Artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea

- Canal is 179 feet wide at narrowest point and 40 feet deep at low tide

- One of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes and fastest crossing from Atlantic Ocean to Indian Ocean

- Transports 14% of total world trade, 26% of oil exports, and 41% percent of total volume of goods and cargo that reach Arab Gulf ports

- Taxes paid by vessels represent an important source of income for the Egyptian Government

- Pharaohs, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and even Napoleon Bonaparte had dug a canal linking both seas, but was neglected and eventually filled up

Timeline

- November 30, 1854--French engineer Ferdinand De lesseps managed to sign concession with the Egyptian government to dig the Suez Canal

- April 25, 1859--Construction began and continued for 10 years; the canal took more than 2.4 million workers to construct and over 125,000 lost their lives

- November 17, 1869--Canal was opened for navigation

- July 1956--Egypt nationalized the canal after it had been international company for 87 years