Gulf residents to get visa on arrival in Egypt

Travellers who have residence permits in the Gulf will be able to obtain a visa upon arrival in Egypt from Monday, the Minister of Tourism revealed.

The decision to grant immediate visas to residents in the UAE and other Gulf countries will be activated upon arrival at Egyptian airports as of May 1

Tourism Minister, Yahya Rashid, said.

“The decision will be in the interest of increasing the number of tourists coming to Egypt from these countries,” Rashed said in remarks to Emarat Al-Youm on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ASA). “The decision will include a number of other Arab countries.”

A revolution in early 2011, a military coup in 2013, and a series of high-profile airline disasters, beginning with the downing of a Russian plane in Sharm El-Sheikh in October 2015, as well as the crash of an EgyptAir flight in May 2016 which resulted in a loss of confidence and shattered the industry that made up 11.4 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2015.

Egypt’s revenue from tourism, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), has plummeted from $14.7 million to $5.4 million in 2016.