Egypt's tourism revenue drops by 43 pct in Q1: official

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's tourism revenues dropped 43 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to $1.3 billion, Adela Ragab, the country's economic adviser to the Minister of Tourism, told Reuters on Wednesday. The tourism sector, which has been damaged by the political instability that followed a popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, suffered another blow in February when a coach carrying Korean tourists was bombed by Islamist extremists. Ragab said around 15 countries issued travel warnings against Egypt after the incident, which contributed to a 30 percent drop in the number of tourists in the first quarter to two million people. The sector saw a 41 percent drop in revenue last year to $5.9 billion compared to the year earlier after hundreds were killed in the violence that followed the army's overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July.