Tourism Ministry spokeswoman, Omaima al-Husseini, said there is an increase in the number of tourists, and that the situation is much better in January than in previous years, with visitors from China, Japan and Ukraine accounting for a large part of the growth. "There are more bookings between October 2016 and January 2017 than last year," Egyptian Federation of Tourism Chief, Karim Mohsen, said. "There is an improvement, especially in cultural tourism in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan," he said. China's top public travel agency reported a 58% increase in tourists flying to Egypt compared with 2015. A spokesman for the Japan Association of Travel agents said charter flights from Japan to Egypt have been on average 80% full since they were resumed in April 2016, and Japan's HIS travel agency said the number of tourists heading to Egypt multiplied by four to five times last year. Red Sea Governor, Ahmed Abdallah, said there is a 20% increase in the number of flights coming in from Ukraine in February, citing an increase in the frequency of flights from 12 to 35 weekly since the beginning of the month. The number of Ukrainian tourists rose from 364,000 tourists in 2015 to 425,000 tourists in 2016, he added. Visitor numbers plunged from 14.7 million in 2010, 9.3 million in 2015 to 5.3 million in 2016, but data from the government's statistics agency shows 551,600 tourists visited Egypt in December 2016, compared with 440,000 the year before. Restoring even two thirds of that number realised in 2010 is a key government goal, but it hinges upon Russia and Britain resuming flights, Husseini said, since more than 60% of tourists arriving in Sharm el-Sheikh by plane used to come from these two countries. In early February, four other European countries -Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden- eased travel warnings against travel to south Sinai. (AFP, Al Masry Al Youm)