CAIRO: Tourists from Spain and France are leading an increase in visitors to Egypt from a number of European countries.

The US is also contributing to the growing demand as Luxor benefits from a tourist boom.

Mohamed Othman, head of the Cultural Tourism Marketing Committee at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, told Arab News: “There has been an increase in the tourist traffic coming from a number of European countries, especially Spain and France. Spanish tourism companies are currently doing around 48 trips per month to Luxor.

“There has been a significant increase in the tourist traffic from France, and the same is true of the incoming trips from the US.”

Tourism toward Luxor and Aswan is predicted to be healthy from the second half of this month, with Japan, South Korea and India starting to operate flights to Luxor.

The percentage of confirmed reservations during the winter are higher than those over the past two years, Othman added.

Tourism writer Mai Sayed told Arab News: “The increase in the number of tourists to Luxor and Aswan, which are located in southern Egypt, is due to the high temperatures there compared to European countries.

“Another factor is that this period is the beginning of the school year, which makes the Egyptian presence in the two ancient cities almost non-existent.”

She added that tourists know Egypt’s holiday seasons so that leads to an increase in visitors from abroad during October.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa is expected to hold a meeting with investors in Luxor in the presence of Gov. Mostafa Elham on the sidelines of his visit to attend a fashion show at the Temple of Hatshepsut.

He will discuss preparations for winter tourism and how to boost visitor numbers.

Plans are currently being worked on to develop a national strategy for tourism development, which will be launched during the first quarter of 2023. These aim to increase tourist traffic, specifically to Luxor and Aswan, from 25 to 30 percent annually.