CAIRO, Aug 7(Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s tourism ministry launched on Sunday an upgraded version of a website aiming to promote for the beleaguered tourism sector.

The ministry said in a statement that the new website provides all the information relating to tourists' interests and attractions in Egypt, reported state-run MENA news agency.

The website comes as one of the pillars of an urgent government plan to revive tourism. The plan aims to attract 10 million tourists into Egypt by the end of 2017.

Tourism in Egypt was hit hard in the aftermath of a series of incidents during the past months, the most prominent of which was the downing of a Russian airliner last October which killed all 224 people on board.

Moscow suspended all flights to Egypt pending an investigation into the crash. The U.K. followed suit, halting all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.

The biggest drop in tourism was recorded last June when the number of tourists declined by 59.9 per cent, compared to same month in 2015, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.

The Finance Minister said on Thursday that tourism losses in the last 10 months were the worst in 15 years.

The Egyptian state has been trying to revive the sector, a main source of hard currency, since a popular uprising in 2011 triggered years of political turmoil, taking a heavy toll on tourism.