CAIRO - Chinese Sichuan Airlines operated its first flight to Cairo International Airport on Tuesday with 222 Chinese tourists on board, marking its maiden flight to Africa.

The flight will run twice per week on Tuesday and Friday in A330 Series plane.

According to Egyptian statistics, China has become the fourth largest exporter of tourists to Egypt since the beginning of 2017.

Egypt has been announced as the fastest growing tourist destination in terms of year-on-year increase of visitors, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization's 2018 report on global travel and tourism.

The annual report showed that Egypt welcomed about 8.5 million tourists during 2017, up by 55.1 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.