CAIRO (AA) - Egyptian international airports on Sunday received some 21,500 tourists despite the pro-democracy protests that engulfed the country on the 40th anniversary of Egypt's 1973 military victory over Israel.
Tourists landed in airports at Sharm al-Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor and Borg al-Arab, Egyptian Airports Company Chairman Gad al-Kerim Nasr said in press statements.
Last week, Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou said his ministry expected that, by November, tourist arrivals to Egypt would reach 70 percent of the numbers registered before the current round of political unrest that erupted this summer with the army's ouster of elected President Mohamed Morsi.
Tourist numbers fell by some 80 percent after several Western countries warned their citizens against travelling to Egypt following the violent dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda protest camps, the minister noted.
Zaazou was referring to the bloody August 14 crackdown by Egyptian security forces on two sits-ins staged by democracy supporters, in which hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed and thousands injured.
Egypt has seen mounting political and security tension since the July 3 ouster of Morsi, the country's first freely elected president.
On Sunday, at least 53 people were killed and 268 wounded in clashes between security forces and pro-democracy protesters in several parts of the country.
The protests coincided with national celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Egypt's 1973 military victory over Israel and the subsequent liberation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
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