Cairo – Mubasher: Receipts in Egypt’s tourism sector are expected to decline by $5 billion, to around 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 compared to last year’s figures, said a new report by Capital Economics released Thursday.

In a note titled “Egypt’s tourism sector stares into the abyss”, the research firm noted “Egypt’s tourism sector has had a torrid time in recent months and last week’s crash of an EgyptAir plane has (although the cause is still unknown) reinforced security concerns.”

Last week, EgyptAir announced that its airplane coming from Paris en-route to Cairo had disappeared off radar screens above the Mediterranean after entering Egyptian airspace. A total of 66 people were reported to be on board, of which 10 members were part of the cabin crew.

In November 2015, a Russian jet was attacked by terrorists over Sinai, renewing the state of stagnation in the tourism sector.

“Admittedly, the sector has recovered from previous such instances – for example, following the shooting of 62 tourists in Luxor in 1997, arrivals returned to their previous peak in less than two years. But two plane crashes in a matter of months mean that tourists are unlikely to be in a rush to return,” said Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics.