TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE OF EGYPT AS A FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL INBOUND TOURISM: SPATIAL ANALYSIS

The article presents the results of a study on the role of transport infrastructure in the development of international inbound tourism in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The relevance of the work is due to the need to identify spatial patterns in the functioning of the country's transport system in the context of post-pandemic recovery of the tourism industry and the persistent concentration of tourist flows in coastal macro-regions. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of individual modes of transport on the formation of inbound tourist flows and to substantiate directions for optimizing transport support for tourism. The methodological basis includes systemic, statistical and comparative-geographical methods, as well as correlation analysis. The information base of the study comprises data from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for 2014–2024. It is established that air transport provides from 85 to 89% of all entries into the country, with the dominant position occupied by the airports of Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. A stable spatial differentiation in the distribution of the bus fleet is revealed: the bulk of tourist buses is concentrated in the provinces of Lower Egypt, while in Sinai their share is minimal. It is shown that railway transport, despite the modernization of rolling stock, retains a limited role in servicing tourist flows. Correlation analysis confirmed a practically functional dependence between airport passenger traffic and the number of tourists (correlation coefficient 0.98). The necessity of developing direct air links with the internal regions of the country and forming multimodal transport schemes for the spatial diversification of inbound tourism is substantiated.