In one year Egypt has seen a whopping 28 percent drop in tourism to 1.3 million when comparing the first two months of 2014 to January and February 2013.

“The majority of the decline in visits is attributed to Middle Eastern countries, specifically Syria, Libya and Bahrain. Visits from Arab countries fell 58 percent, mostly depicting an 85 percent drop from Syria, 54 percent from Libya, and 19 percent decline in visits from Bahrain,” reports Ahram.

But tourists coming from the United Arab Emirates jumped by 38 percent to add up to 3,088 visitors in January and February.

Yet, tourists from Europe declined 24 percent compared to January and February 2013. There were also 42 percent less tourists from Asia and the Pacific.

This is not good news for Egypt–the tourism sector accounts for roughly nine percent of GDP.

Tourism has dropped since an uprising forced president Hosni Mubarak to step down in 2011. And sporadic violence have caused many countries to issue travel warnings against Egypt.

Just four years ago tourism was at an all-time high–4.7 million visitors. It dropped to about 10 million in 2011, then increased to 11.5 million in 2012.

“In an attempt to save the ailing sector, tourism minister, Hisham Zaazou, oversaw initiatives to encourage domestic tourism through affordable travel packages. Zaazou also hosted a delegation of British experts in Sharm El-Sheikh to assess the safety of Sinai’s touristic resorts,” reports Ahram.

Egypt is looking to lure in visitors from emerging markets such as India, the source of 18 million tourists annually. So far this year, Indian tourists fell by 14.5 percent to 7,872 visitors.

Egypt is hoping the second “India on the banks of the Nile” festival starting 1st of April and continuing for three weeks will boost Indian tourism.

Egypt wants to attract one million Indian tourists by September 2017, says Al-Azazi.