Tourism
is one of the most important sectors in Egypt's economy. More than 12.8 million tourists visited
Egypt in 2008, providing revenues of nearly 11$ billion
।
The sector employs about 12 percent of Egypt's workforce
Safety
Terrorism has affected the industry in recent times. A total of 58 foreign tourists were killed in the 1997
Luxor massacre
.The tourist industry sunk even lower with the September 11 attacksUnited States in
2001, the 2004 Sinai bombings, April 2005 terrorist attacks in Cairo, the July 23, 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, and the 2006 Dahab bombings. in the
eastern
Historically, foreign tourists have been a common target of
attacks dating back to the early 1990s.
Militants have typically been motivated by a combination of Qutbism and opposition to the Mubarak government, and
attacking foreigners including non-Muslims while hurting Egypt's tourist trade was seen as serving both goals .
Oceanic Whitetip Shark swims at Elphinstone
Reef in Egypt in the Red Sea on November 5, 2003
In late 2010 Egypt's
tourism ministry decided to close the Sharm el-Sheikh beach following shark attacks that left one German tourist dead and four people (three Russians and one Ukrainian)[10] seriously injured.[11] [12] [13] The attacks appear to be
from more than one shark,[14] and include at least one shortfin mako shark.[14
]Marine biologist George Burgess said that more than one species of shark has
been involved in the attacks,[3] possibly including an Oceanic whitetip shark.[3]
): هسردملا ىف هدخانب انك ىلا نم رصم ىف هحايسلا نع فارجارب
Tourism in Egypt
Egypt is a country that is extremely rich in its historical background. With such a background it is easy to see why tourism is a
big component of its gross national product. The well being of the Egyptian economy is highly dependent on a good year of tourism. The whole business of tourism has relied on the ancient monuments and relics of the past, but in
recent years there has been a huge effort to create more modern tourist attractions like resorts and golf courses. The combinations of the old and new attractions comprise the biggest sector of the Egyptian economy
.
For the most part it is said that Egypt consists basically of six different tourist sites .Three of the sites;
Alexandria, Hurghada, and Sharm El Sheikh are coastal
hotspots. They consist of many of the newer resorts offering many activities to its guests like water sports, casinos, nightclubs, and golf courses.
These three
sites would be considered the more modern sites. The other three sites; Aswan ,Cairo, and
Luxor are the more historical tourist sites. Although Aswan doesn’t hold that many historical monuments, the other two, Cairo and Luxor, are
overflowing with them. These sites are highly geared towards the tourist and offer a wide variety of transportation and guided tours (Egypt Ministry.)
Within a few of these sites are contained some of the most awe
inspiring and ancient monuments known to man. Now when you first hear the word
Egypt, you directly focus your attention to the Great Pyramids of Giza. It is
easily one of Egypt’s most visited monuments and one of the world’s largest tourist attractions. The ancient Greeks considered the pyramids to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Another one of the great monuments to come out of
ancient Egyptian society is the Sphinx. One of the greatest things about the
Sphinx is that the purpose of it is still unknown and highly debated on. The
Sphinx is known in Arabic as Abu El Hol, which means “Father of Terror”. The actual name of Sphinx was given by the Greeks, who believed it was a
representation of the mythical winged monster with a woman’s head and lion’s body who proposed a riddle to the Thebans and killed all who could not get the correct answer (Tourism and Entertainment
.)
Many of the artifacts found near or in these ancient Egyptian monuments are now stored in the Egyptian

Museum
.The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities was built in 1858 right in the middle of Cairo at Al Tahrir
Square. The museum itself houses more then 100,000 of Egypt’s relics and antiques from virtually every period of its history. The exhibits are
arranged chronologically starting with the Old Kingdom and going all the way up
to the Roman Empire. “If you spend one minute at each exhibit, it will take you nine months to see everything”(Tourism and Entertainment). You can just imagine the shear size of this massive building just by the last statement (Tourism and
Entertainment.)
The population of the country of Egypt is roughly 60 million
people. Now just imagine how important the tourism sector is to the population
when 10 million people have jobs directly or indirectly related to it.
The reason for this high number is that a job in the tourism field is very profitable when compared to other jobs offered in the Egyptian economy. This is
easy to see when you find out that the average visiting businessperson spends about $240.00 a day. Tourism is one of the major sources of hard currency; which
is an effective factor in economic and social development. It took over Egypt’s main source of foreign exchange from oil in 1988 and has been on top ever since .In 1990, the gross domestic product reached 24 billion, of which 10% of that was
a product of tourism. With the average number of tourists each year around 4.3
million spending about 2.5 billion annually, it’s easy to see why the percentage
is so high (Zohery.)
There are a few problems that Egypt is facing that are extremely detrimental to its tourism sector. One of the problems is that many of
Egypt’s ancient monuments are being adversely affected by the high amount of tourist traffic to the area. Affects of this have already been seen. In February of 1988, a 500pound chunk of limestone fell off of the Sphinx. What used to be
true was that these great historical monuments had been protected for centuries by huge drifts of sand that have long since been cleared away to make more room
for the tourists. What is happening as a result of this high traffic is all the evaporation that occurs. This leaves salt deposits in the pyramid, which wears away the stone, and this also happens on the walls where the art on the monuments are wearing away. Until recently, traffic was allowed extremely close
to the monuments. What this did was to make small rumbles in the ground, which over time has started cracks in many of the monuments. Another problem Egypt has is its high pollution. All the smog from the cars and factories are producing
acid rain that is falling on the monuments mostly made of limestone and wearing them down. The Egyptian government needs to take some precautionary action to
counteract or at least soften the blow of many of these environmental factors .The country itself boasts about 10,000 antique sites that are irreplaceable. The future of tourism depends on protecting these sites (TED
.)
Another detriment to the tourism sector of the economy is its vulnerability to regional conflicts and terrorism. One such occurrence was during and right after the Gulf War, in
.
1991
The tourist sector reached an all time low with 10 million employees affected with a 20% unemployment rate. Another incident, this one of terrorism
,occurred in 1997 when there was a massacre of 30 foreign tourists in
Luxor .Total visitors to the country the following year fell 13%. Only in recent months have the number of tourists begun to reach the amounts it used to be
( TED.)
While the Egyptian government is making an attempt to develop more tourist attractions to the country, they need to preserve the ones that they
already have. Only with a combination of both the old and the new will the Egyptian tourism sector continue to thrive .