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Tourism in Eritrea

Eritrea recorded a total of 142,000 tourists in 2016, ranking 164th in the world in absolute terms. No se han publicado más datos recientes desde entonces.

That smaller countries regularly perform lower in a comparison of the absolute number of guests, is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Eritrea, the result is much more comparable picture: With 0.039 tourists per resident, Eritrea ranked 149th in the world. In Eastern Africa, it ranked 8th.

In 2016, Eritrea generated around 48.00 million US dollars in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 2.3 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 0 percent of all international tourism receipts in Eastern Africa.

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Back to overview: Eritrea

On average, each of the tourists arriving in 2016 spent about 321 US dollars.

Development of the tourism sector in Eritrea from 1995 to 2016

The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Eritrea each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g., crew members of ships or flights are also not considered tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.

The red line represents the average of all 16 countries in Eastern Africa.

Tourists per year in Eritrea

Revenues from tourism

In 1995, tourism revenues amounted to 58.00 million USD, or about 10.03 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 315,000 tourists at that time and roughly 184 USD per person. Within 14 years, the country's dependence on tourism has decreased substantially. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales were $26.00 million billion, 1.4 percent of gross national product. Thus, each visitor spent an average of $329 on their vacation in Eritrea.

Full figures for 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, are not currently available. However, national and international travel has been restricted worldwide, and some countries have even been closed off from the outside world altogether. Dramatic revenue losses are expected, with some countries experiencing losses of up to more than 80%.

Tourism receipts in Eritrea per year

All data for Eritrea in detail

YearNumber of touristsReceipts% of GNPReceipts per tourist
2016142,00048.00 m $338 $
2015114,000
2014119,000
2013141,000
2012129,000
2011107,000
201084,000
200979,00026.00 m $1.4 %329 $
200870,00046.00 m $3.3 %657 $
200781,00061.00 m $4.6 %753 $
200678,00060.00 m $5.0 %769 $
200583,00066.00 m $6.0 %795 $
200487,00073.00 m $6.6 %839 $
200380,00074.00 m $8.5 %925 $
2002101,00073.00 m $10.01 %723 $
2001113,00074.00 m $9.8 %655 $
200070,00036.00 m $5.1 %514 $
199957,00028.00 m $4.1 %491 $
1998188,00034.00 m $4.6 %181 $
1997410,00090.00 m $13.11 %220 $
1996417,00069.00 m $9.9 %165 $
1995315,00058.00 m $10.03 %184 $


Our data on tourist numbers, revenues and expenditures are based on information from the World Tourism Organization. However, to ensure international comparability, the data for some years or countries were manually researched and corrected if they obviously included visitors without overnight stays. In these cases, the data were taken from the official communications of the respective national tourism authorities.

The World Tourism Organization additionally points out that in some countries, the number of tourists is only counted at airports, while in others they are also counted at border crossings or even hotels. A comprehensive and reliable indication is therefore hardly possible in any country.

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