CAIRO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of tourists coming to Egypt in 2012 increased by 17.1 percent year on year, Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in an official statement Wednesday.
About 11.5 million tourists visited Egypt in 2012, compared to 9.8 million in 2011, the year of the upheaval that toppled the former regime, the statement said, noting the number was 14.7 million back in 2010.
Egypt's CAPMAS said that the largest number of tourists hail from Western Europe, followed by Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
A total of 2.3 million tourists were from Arab states in 2012, representing a 26-percent increase yearly, as the figure was 1.8 million in 2011, the statement showed.
Tourism generates 11 percent of Egypt's GDP (gross domestic product), and provides job opportunities for around three million people, one-eighth of the country's workforce.
Tourism alone earned Egypt 13 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, a number yet to be reached again since the 2011 unrest.
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