Tourists visit Giza pyramids in Egypt. (File photo: Xinhua)

CAIRO, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Sitting outside a souvenir shop at the historic Khan al-Khalili market in Egypt's capital Cairi, 35-year-old Mohamed Mansour lamented that he had been waiting in vain for almost a month for a client to buy any souvenir.

The once-teeming market with thousands of tourists is now almost empty as people keep staying at home over the fears of the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"For five weeks, not a single pound has entered my pocket," Mansour, a worker in Silver Bazar, told Xinhua, adding the business is even worse than the days of turmoil following the ouster of late President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Tourism is Egypt's third largest source of national income after non-oil exports with $17 billion and remittances from Egyptian expatriates which reached 26.4 billion dollars in 2019, as the tourism revenue jumped by 28 percent to about 12.2 billion dollars in the fiscal year 2018/2019.

However, the vital industry has been near collapse amid the spread of the coronavirus, which prompted the authorities to close airports, restaurants, malls, museums and archeological sites before imposing a curfew.

"My travel agency will stop paying the salaries starting from May before the season is expected to work again in the coming winter," said Karim Abdel-Raziq, a 42-year-old tour guide.

"It's a catastrophe for the tourism industry and employees who couldn't survive more months of halt," he added.

To support the declining sector, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided on March 24 to grant tourist utilities two-year loans as well as tourism companies a grace period of six months to pay employees' salaries and financial dues to their suppliers.

The CBE allocated 50 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.17 billion) to finance companies and tourist firms that need to replace and renew hotels and transport fleets.

In an effort to stem the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved a 6-billion-dollar plan, which guaranteed the payment of salaries to those sent home by their employers, as well as a three-month payment totalling 1,500 pounds to all workers who are in the informal sector and not registered on the social insurance rolls.

It is worth noting nearly two out of three jobs in Egypt are in the informal sector, according to a study published in 2018 by the International Labor Organization.