CAIRO, May 31 (Aswat Masriya)- Egypt’s ministry of social solidarity said it will reimburse the families affected by the decline in tourism in Sharm al-Sheikh, Saint Catherine and Dahab in south Sinai for six months.

The ministry allocated EGP 1.341 million to be distributed on 745 families, according to state-run news agency MENA.

Egypt’s tourism industry, a vital source of foreign currency, has been hit hard following a series of crises in recent months including a crash of an EgyptAir flight in the Mediterranean earlier in May, killing 66 people on board.

The UK, Russia and Turkey had announced last year the suspension of flights to the Red sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on the heels of a Russian airliner’s crash in October in the restive Sinai Peninsula.

The passenger flight, which took off from from Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh airport as it headed to St. Petersburg in Russia, broke up mid-air 23 minutes after taking off, killing all 224 holidaymakers and crew on board.

The crash is believed to have been caused by an act of terrorism.

The number of tourists visiting Egypt fell by 47.2 per cent in March compared to the same month last year, said the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

CAPMAS attributed its findings to the decline in the number of Russian tourists by 99.2 per cent.