Egypt could lose out on tourism revenues worth more than 2 percent of its GDP this year due to global travel restrictions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its 2020 External Sector Report.
The forecast is based on a scenario laid out in a UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) study in which all travel restrictions are gradually lifted as of September, which would still see 2020 tourism receipts fall 73 percent y-o-y.
The IMF says pandemic-induced tourism losses will likely be incurred mostly by “large net tourism exporters,” including Egypt, Costa Rica, Greece, Morocco, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Turkey.
Tourism revenues, meanwhile, fell 11.2 percent y-o-y during the quarter to its lowest level in any three-month period over the past two years, Central Bank of Egypt data released last month showed
