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CAIRO, June 10-- A growing number of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Egypt in the coming years as the ties between the two countries are building up, said Shi Yuewen, Chinese cultural counselor to Egypt, in an exclusive interview. "Nearly half a million Chinese tourists visited Egypt in 2018 compared with only 300,000 in 2017, which is a big leap," Shi told Xinhua. He expected the number of Chinese visitors to exceed 500,000 in 2019. Egypt's continuing efforts to enhance stability and eliminate terrorism especially in heritage sites will encourage more Chinese people to visit the country, Shi said. Egypt netted 6.1 billion U.S. dollars in tourism revenues in 2017, a drastic decline from 12.5 billion dollars in 2010, according to the official statistics agency. As one of the most ancient civilizations, Egypt has been working hard to discover and preserve its archaeological heritage across the country while organizing conferences abroad to promote its ancient civilization. It also strives to revive its ailing tourism sector which has been suffering an acute recession over the past few years from political turmoil and relevant security issues. Describing Egypt as a "very important tourism country," Shi encouraged the Egyptian government to provide more support for the tourism sector. "I hope the Egyptian government will launch broader international advertising conferences and salons to help the tourism sector revive," he said. | 
