Tourism is one of the most important parts of Egypt’s economy. At its peak in 2010 the sector employed about 12% of Egypt’s workforce, serving approximately 14.7 million visitors to Egypt in 2010, and providing revenues of nearly $12.5 billion . As well as contributing more than 11% of GDP and 14.4% of foreign currency revenues.
Egypt enjoys various fields of tourism attractions; the most important are archeological or cultural tourism as one of the oldest types of tourism in Egypt, where the landmarks of the ancient civilizations are visible to the naked eye, an incarnation of the nations that constructed these civilizations since the dawn of history. Despite the multiple types of tourism, Egypt’s cultural tourism remains unrepeated, unique and a non-competitive component of tourism; as Egypt possesses one third of the world’s known monuments.
Besides cultural and archaeological tourism, many tourism attractions types have come into existence and addressed broader segments of tourists across the world, including recreational tourism, beaches tourism, religious tourism, therapeutic tourism, eco-tourism, sports tourism, golf tourism, safari tourism, desert tourism, yacht tourism, and maritime tourism, in addition to festivals tourism, and cultural events and conferences and exhibitions tourism.