Egypts tourism revenue jumped 77 percent in the first half of 2018 to around $4.8 billion compared with the same period last year, a government official said. The official, who declined the be named, told Reuters on Wednesday that visitor numbers during the first half of 2018 jumped 41 percent from a year before to about 5 million. A total of 14.7 million people visited Egypt in 2010. "Indicators suggest the sector will earn about $9 billion by the end of this year," the official said, adding there were expectations of greater traffic from western Europe, Italy, Germany and Ukraine towards the end of the year. That figure would mark a jump from last years $7.6 billion. Egyptian tourism has been gradually recovering from a 2011 downturn triggered by the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, helped by a currency float in late 2016 that halved the pounds value and made the country a relatively cheap bet for foreign visitors. The tourism sector is a pillar of the countrys economy and a key earner of foreign currency. Meanwhile, Moodys, an international credit rating agency, raised Egypts credit outlook to positive from stable, citing progress in its ambitious economic reform plan backed by the International Monetary Fund. In a Tuesday report, Moody’s affirmed the countrys long-term issuer rating at B3, six levels below investment grade. However, it said the positive outlook signals that a downgrade is "currently very unlikely." It said "the substantial progress made by the government in implementing reforms agreed with the IMF has imparted a degree of financial stability not present earlier in the decade."