Egypt eyes World Cup as golden opportunity for economy
After a 28-year absence, Egypt hopes to take advantage of its participation in the 2018 World Cup, hosted by Russia, to achieve some economic gains.
CAIRO — The 21st edition of the FIFA World Cup is set to begin June 14 in Russia, with Egypt joining the soccer competition after a 28-year absence.
The country will take advantage of this opportunity to revive its economy by promoting international tourism to Egypt, while trying to boost domestic consumption through marketing the local economy, such as the sales of sports items and visits to cafes and restaurants
The Egyptian tourism sector has been hit by a sharp decline since the 2011 protests and security unrest. The situation went further downhill with the terrorism-related crash of a Russian plane in Sinai in 2015. In an October 2017 article, Reuters reported that while 14.7 million visited Egypt in 2010, the numbers dropped to 9.8 million in 2011 and 4.5 million in 2016.
However, the secretary of Egypt’s parliamentary Tourism Committee, Ghada Sakr, told Al-Monitor, “The tourism sector in Egypt started recovering in 2017 as a result of the international tours of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his excellent management of Egypt’s foreign relations that promoted Egypt’s tourism sector. Egypt gained revenues estimated at $7.6 billion from tourism with the rise of the number of tourists up to 8.3 million in 2017.”
