WHEN the Arab Spring spread toEgypton Jan. 25, culminating in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak 17 days later, it brought an electrifying sense of achievement and — as travelers and tour operators know all too well — an unwelcome side effect: the crippling of Egypt’s tourism industry, the country’s major source of revenue and jobs.

    A total of 14.8 million tourists came to Egypt last year, feeding $13 billion into the economy. But the number of visitors fell by 80 percent in the first month after the revolution, and the industry will probably finish this year down 25 percent, according to the tourism ministry. That is a loss of more than $3 billion.

    “We canceled all of our departures for the spring,” said Tom Armstrong, the director of communications for Tauck Tours, which normally runs a dozen high-end trips to Egypt annually. Now, with the high season just beginning, “business is coming back, but it’s not back to what we’ve enjoyed historically,” he said.

    “In the long term we’re optimistic,” he added, noting that the government’s “aggressive” promotion has helped restore a measure of confidence.

    Those efforts have included TV advertising, news media junkets and a marketing push at tourist fairs inEurope, theUnited Statesand elsewhere. Mounir Fakhri Abdel Nour, the minister of tourism and former head of Egypt’s largest opposition party, said he spent much of last spring and summer “doing everything feasible to bring back the tourists,” including appearances throughout theMiddle Eastand Europe to spread the word that the country is safe. A lobbying campaign succeeded in getting the southern Egyptian city of Aswan selected as the host last month of the World Tourism Day ceremony, an important industry event.

    “Not a single tourist has been hurt, or had any problem since the 25th of January,” Mr. Abdel Nour said. In the midst of the revolution, banners in Tahrir Square, he said, “were asking tourists not to leave, and promising that they will be protected, which tells you to what extent Egyptians value tourism.”

    In the United States, tour companies like Abercrombie & Kent say they are seeing an increase in interest, particularly among first timers taking advantage of low prices, politically aware travelers who wish to show support for Egyptian democracy and returnees interested in exploring newly accessible sites like the Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor, a 1.7-mile path linking the Temple of Luxor with the Temple of Karnak, scheduled to be fully renovated this fall.

    Abercrombie & Kent ran all nine of its scheduled tours in Egypt in October. All were at close to their capacity of 20 to 24 people each, said Pamela Lassers, the company’s media-relations director. Dozens of tours scheduled through New Year’s 2012 are nearly full, she said, and the company has added two new departures next year for its family tour “Pyramids, Mummies and Temples.”

    Tauck and Abercrombie & Kent have filled their Facebook pages with testimonials from recent visitors to Egypt, many of whom cite the absence of the usual crush at the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum; and the “optimistic spirit” and “good mood” of the people. “Right now is a great time to visit,” a visitor wrote in September. “It’s not crowded and there are incredible deals out there.”

    Abercrombie & Kent guides have begun incorporating recent events into their itineraries. “There are lots of people who want to see the effects of the revolution,” Ms. Lasser said.

    Yet assuring travelers that Egypt is safe can be a challenge. Recent events have shown that the rebound of the tourism industry will depend on political stability, which remains elusive. In late June, clashes between protesters and the police around Tahrir Square left hundreds of people injured. In September, the killings of five Egyptian security officers by Israeli forces in the aftermath of a militant attack on the Egypt-Israelborder touched off a mob assault on the Israeli Embassy inCairo. Three Egyptians were killed and more than 1,000 were injured. And last month, 24 Coptic Christians were run over by military vehicles or shot dead during a protest in Cairo.

    Rami Girgis, Abercrombie & Kent’s product manager for Egypt and North Africa, who just returned from Cairo, said, “The security forces are visible everywhere, not only tourist police, but the army.”

    EVEN so, Mr. Armstrong of Tauck said that clients “are calling, expressing interest mixed with a little bit of concern” that protests or other disturbances could disrupt opening hours or force some museums and sites to close.

    Some tourism officials and tour operators are promoting Alexandria, which saw Coptic protests in October but nothing close to the violence of Cairo, as a safer bet. The Mediterranean city, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., has never been a big draw for modern Westerners. Preservationists and the Egyptian government have been trying to change that in recent years.

    In 2002, the newLibraryof Alexandria opened on the Corniche near the site of its predecessor, which was built in the third century B.C. and burned by the Romans in 30 B.C. The library, a huge glass-and-steel disc that slopes sharply toward the Mediterranean Sea, has won accolades for its ambitious design and innovations like the Espresso Book Machine, which can reproduce almost any volume, complete with color covers and glue bindings, in minutes.

    City officials are also planning for the world’s first underwater museum, which would offer glimpses of sphinxes, ancient shipwrecks and fragments believed to be from the Pharaos of Alexandria lighthouse, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

    Sarah Nabil, public relations manager for the Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria, said the city had been preparing for a major influx of Western and Middle Eastern tourists before the revolution. “It was supposed to be starting this year, and of course it didn’t happen,” she said.

    First came the deadly New Year’s Day bombing of Saints Church by radical Islamists affiliated with Al Qaeda. Then the revolution hit. As in Cairo, the police withdrew and prisoners escaped en masse; violent clashes erupted. Tourists fled the city and, except for Arab and North African visitors, they have largely stayed away.

    Ms. Nabil said that citywide plans to upgrade hotels and restaurants are on hold. “The city was starting to be on a higher level, and that’s all been delayed,” she said.

    Everyone in Egypt, from Ms. Nabil to the protesters in Tahrir Square to government officials, depend on foreign visitors thinking of Egypt as a safe place. So far, that has been as much of a challenge as establishing a full-fledged democracy.