Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
65
4 Case Studies
4.1 Egypt
1. Type/Focus area for case study
Desk Case Study/ MFT Products and Services
2. Reasoning behind focus area choice
Egypt provides a full array of MFT products and services; airports, airline, hotels, restaurants,
and entertainment and shopping venues. Being a Muslim majority country, Egyptian food
served in both hotel restaurants and food outlets all around the country is essentially Halal.
Egypt’s vast supply of Halal restaurants offers a variety of choices from traditional Egyptian
dishes to international cuisine. Cairo, Egypt’s capital city, is aptly labeled “the city of 1000
minarets” which means Muslim tourists can find a mosque wherever they go. Throughout the
country, prayer areas are also available from the point the tourist arrives at any of Egypt’s
international airports to most of the areas they decide to visit including shopping malls,
cultural and entertainment sites.
3. Background
Table 3: Egypt – Tourism Figures
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 CAGR
Total Inbound Tourist
Arrivals (Mil)
9.7 10.42 11.19 12.02 12.91 13.86 14.89 7.40%
Total Inbound
Expenditure ($ Bil)
7.2 7.73 8.31 8.92 9.58 10.29 11.05 7.40%
Total Outbound
Expenditure ($ Bil)
3.78 3.99 4.36 4.76 5.19 5.66 6.17 10.30%
Muslim Tourist
Arrivals (Mil)
0.65 0.70 0.75 0.81 0.86 0.93 1.00 7.40%
Source: UNWTO; DinarStandard synthesis and analysis; Government Statistics.
Egypt’s Muslim tourist arrivals have been estimated to grow by 7.4 percent CAGR from 700k
arrivals in 2015 to 1 million arrivals in 2020. The CAGR reflects total inbound tourist arrivals
and total inbound expenditure, which is estimated to grow from 10.4 million arrivals
spending $7.7 billion in 2015 to nearly 15 million arrivals spending $11 billion in 2020.
The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) reported the number of
tourists arriving in Egypt during 2015 as 9.3 million, with 1.7 million from Arab countries. 159
Egypt has been listed several times in Muslim tourism reports as one of the top destinations
159 Mounir, Hossam. “5.6% Decrease in Number of Tourists in 2015: CAPMAS.” Daily News Egypt. 9 Mar. 2016. Web.