Egyptian Tourism Minister Zuheir Garana has said that the number of tourists visiting Egypt in the first eight months of this year increased by 5 percent over the same period last year, the state-owned al-Akhbar daily reported on Wednesday.

Garana said that the number of foreign visitors to Egypt reached 6 million, which reflected the strength of the Egyptian tourism industry and tourists' confidence in Egypt.

Tourism is one of Egypt's four key foreign currency earners, along with Suez Canal transit fees, remittances from Egyptian expatriates as well as gas and oil exports.

In 2005, 8.6 million foreign tourists visited Egypt and spent some 6.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to figures released by the Tourism Ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2006)