By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Cairo : Egypt remains a stable and safe destination for tourists despite the revolution in 2011 that ousted Hosni Mubarak, President Mohamed Morsi said Monday.
Morsi was speaking following a militant attack Sunday on the Sinai Peninsula, near the Karem Abu Salem Israeli border crossing, that killed 16 Egyptian guards and injured seven.
“Egypt is still firm, stable and safe country for tourists, mainly because of those people who set up revolution in spring on 2011,” Morsi said in a televised address Monday, adding that “Egypt had become safer than before”.
Egyptian authorities have closed the road along the Mediterranean coast in northern Sinai for tourist buses after the attack, Egypt’s security services said.
The Egyptian tourism sector comprises about 11 percent of country’s gross domestic product and provides jobs for three million Egyptians.
The tourism industry was significantly affected by the Arab Spring popular uprising that toppled long-serving president Mubarak and put the country under a state of emergency.