Hotels in Egypt, which are open at half capacity due to COVID-19 measures, had occupancy rates between 40 percent and 45 percent in the first quarter of the year, an official from the tourism ministry told Reuters on Sunday.
According to Reuters calculations, this amounts to an occupancy rate of nearly 25 percent if hotels were running at full capacity.
The hotel occupancy rate stood at 25 percent in January, then rose to 30 percent in February, before climbing to 45 percent in March, the tourism official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Tourism is Egypt’s key source of foreign currency, accounting for up to 15 percent of its national output.
The North African country received 500,000 tourists in the first three months of 2021 and earned tourism revenues worth between $600 million and $800 million, deputy tourism minister Ghada Shalabi said earlier this month.
Egypt’s Red Sea province saw the highest hotel occupancy in the first quarter, followed Sharm El-Sheikh in the Southern Sinai province, the official added.
