The year 2007 witnessed a massive tourism progression worldwide, with 898 million tourists, which was a 6% increase over the previous year.

Egypt was in the lead of the Middle Eastern region, where 11.1 million tourists visited the country, as opposed to 9 million in 2006; marking a significant 22.1% increase. Consequently, and according to the Central Bank of Egypt, tourism revenues reached 9.4 million USD in 2007.

Russia was the number one source market in 2007, with arrivals reaching 1.5 million, beating Germany and the UK, whose numbers well exceeded million tourists in 2007. Italy followed with 983,000, and France stood at 464,000 tourists. As for the arrivals to Egypt from the Middle East, they reached an approximate 2 million tourists, topped with Libya at 439,000, followed by Saudi Arabia at 412,000. Arrivals from the Ukraine reached 358,000, followed by Poland with 335,000, and the 10th on the list of tourist arrivals was the United States with 272,000 tourists arriving to Egypt.

As a result, Egypt enjoyed double-digit revPAR growth in every market. Popular holiday destinations saw the strongest growth with occupancy increasing from 17.5% to 76.5%, especially in Sharm El-Sheikh. A further increase in average room rates of 10.8% enabled the market to achieve one of the highest revPAR growth rates across the Middle East of up to 30.2%.

129 thousand tourists visited Egypt from Japan in 2007, and according to the Minister of Tourism, Zuhair Garranah, Japan is considered one of the most important source markets, as the Japanese are fully aware of the history and culture of the country, and are therefore always eager to visit the historic sites to learn more. Garranah stated that more direct flights to and from Japan have to be added to the existing one. There is only one direct Egypt Air flight now with an 84% occupancy level.