Egypt's tourism revenue has declined by roughly $1.3 billion since a Russian plane crash in the Sinai last year, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in a televised interview on Monday.

Egypt's president said last week that a Russian plane that crashed in Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board, had been downed by terrorists seeking to damage its tourism industry and ties with Russia, echoing a position already taken by Western countries and Moscow.

"After the plane crash, over the past three or four months, we lost around $1.2 billion or $1.3 billion in revenues," Sherif said. – Reuters