North Africa
Where the continent's largest tourism numbers live, where the Mediterranean and Atlantic gateway strategies compete, and where Casablanca is rewriting the connectivity map for the entire continent. North Africa's tourism economy is older, larger and more institutionally developed than the rest of the continent — and faces the most direct competition from European destinations for the same source markets.
Egypt's tourism receipts are not a sector. They are an IMF programme.
The Egyptian state has drawn $5.2 billion under an $8 billion IMF programme. The Suez Canal has lost $6 billion in annual revenue to Houthi attacks. Tourism receipts grew 17 percent in 2025 to roughly $16 billion. The IMF attributed the current account improvement specifically to remittances and tourism receipts. Tourism is the load-bearing instrument of the programme.
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