CAIRO, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) revealed on Thursday that tourism revenues increased by 28 percent in the fiscal year 2018-2019 from the previous year.
Fiscal year in Egypt starts in July each year.
"The tourism revenues increased to 12.6 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2018-2019 compared with nearly 10 billion dollars in the previous fiscal year," official news agency MENA quoted a CBE's official as saying.
Egypt has jumped nine places to rank 65th in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index released by the World Economic Forum in September, the source added.
Egypt's Ministry of Tourism has launched a program in 2018 to develop that vital sector for achieving a sustainable tourism development and to raise the competitiveness standard in line with the world levels, Minister of Tourism Rania al-Mashat told MENA.
The program is based on five pillars including institutional and legislative reform, developing the investment and the infrastructure, promotion and activation, as well as adopting modern trends, al-Mashat added.
The revenues of the Suez Canal, the tourism sector and foreign investments are the major sources of hard currency in the country.
