The downing of the Russian plane above Sinai in October 2015 sought to deal a severe blow to Egyptian tourism. The repercussions of Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter plane offered an opportunity to reduce the pressure and contain the crisis, but any such outcome was scuppered when an Egyptian plane headed to Larnaca was hijacked in March 2016 and one coming in from Charles de Gaulle Airport crashed into the Mediterranean in mid-May 2016. This provided a justification for travel warnings and bans not applied in the wake of similar terrorist incidents in Paris, Brussels, and Istanbul. The number of tourists coming to Egypt declined by 46 per cent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, from 2.2 million to 1.2 million. Tourist revenues dropped by 67 per cent, from $1.5 billion to $500 million. This necessitated serious steps and fundamental changes in security plans to regain confidence. The most important parties in the crisis are Russia and the UK. The first sends three million tourists, about one-third of the total, and is seen as a refuge in times of crisis. Since Russia's stance is based on security concerns, it was thought that responding to concerns from Russian experts regarding measures to secure the country's tourists would ensure their return. The stance of the UK however, with one million tourists, is based on political considerations. Containing the crisis required addressing both sides and dealing with the issue calmly and without arrogance. The foreign minister visited Moscow in March, followed by a parliamentary delegation and the aviation minister in July. In Egypt, we received a delegation from the British House of Commons and the French parliament. In its management of the crisis, Egypt sought to distinguish between objective observations aiming to improve airport security and protect travellers based on international standards and attempts to exploit the crisis to exert pressure and interfere in airports using security as a pretext. Egypt has welcomed several delegations and inspection committees from Russia, Germany, and the UK to observe the security situation in airports. They offered comments on gates, explosive detection devices, x-ray equipment, moving luggage from conveyor belts to planes, separating employee entrances from tourist entrances, and replacing security permits with fingerprint or retinal scan devices. Ground radar equipped with cameras was installed to detect explosives and drugs in a three-kilometre range and another system was installed on the airport walls. This is in addition to body scan equipment that can detect items concealed on travellers and cameras in passenger halls to monitor suspects, most of which are rare in international airports. Egypt hired the UK-based Control Risks to review and assess security measures at Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh airports in December 2015. It also contracted National Falcon to oversee inspections of passengers and luggage at gates and entrances to halls in both airports in June 2016. At the same time, the UK-based Restrata, which specialises in airport security, consulting, and training, was hired to train 7,000 Falcon personnel, assess trainees on the job, conduct security risk assessments, review and assess procedures and offer recommendations, and establish a specialised training institute and a factory to produce x-ray devices and explosive detection equipment, in cooperation with major global companies. The interior minister signed a cooperation agreement with his German counterpart in mid-July to strengthen airport security, under which Interior Ministry forces will remain responsible for external security of buildings, parking lots, areas facing passenger halls, and sensitive areas for private companies, as well as visas, passports, and passenger information. There are signs that the crisis is coming to an end. Japan and Sweden lifted their bans and allowed their nationals to travel to Egypt, and some German airlines have resumed flights to Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, and Marsa Alam, while regular charter flights continue to fly into Luxor. Other airlines intend to resume flights in late September or early October. Bright Sky announced one weekly flight from Poland to Sharm El-Sheikh and then increased it to two flights weekly. Japanese charters are again sending a weekly flight, while Turkey is resuming all flights to Sharm El-Sheikh starting 10 September. The vice-chair of the transport committee in the Russian Duma announced that a committee of experts would take an exploratory trip to Cairo Airport to decide on the gradual resumption of regular flights, and the transport minister confirmed that charter flights would soon resume to airports that met safety and security requirements. Russian tour operators have begun to prepare for resumed work in late October and early November. The delegation from the British Commons said it wanted to resume tourism before the winter season, particularly since the contract with the British Restrata offers reassurances and reduces justifications for intransigence. Before we start dreaming, however, there are several observations important for the return of tourism: - President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi finally achieved the dream of the tourism sector by restructuring the Supreme Tourism Council under his presidency to guarantee its effectiveness. But success depends on the selection of a good technical secretariat to prepare studies and coordinate topics to present to the council, following through on its decisions, and forming a higher committee to revitalise operating mechanisms, to ensure the kind of success seen when tourism minister during Hosni Mubarak's regime, Mamdouh Al-Beltagui assumed the ministry — an experiment that holds useful lessons. The successful composition of the secretariat can turn it into a committee for crisis management in the sector. - Successive crises since 2011 led a considerable number of specialised workers to leave the sector for other work, so a shortage of experienced labour is expected when tourism employment reaches its normal levels. This requires stepping up training programmes to compensate for this loss. - There is a marked decline in infrastructure, which may compel the state to consider reducing burdens on tourism facilities and supporting them with easy-term loans to finance renovations. - We should take advantage of international planning and management firms to review the tourism development plan and its marketing and investment needs. - The Ministry of Antiquities cut fees for filming at tourist locales by half, but they are still extremely high compared to our nearest competitors, and routine measures still create obstacles, despite the importance of this activity in promoting tourism, providing jobs for film extras, and bringing in revenue for the rental of film studios and outside film set and costume crews. The policy may thus require reconsideration. - A set of bold steps must be taken to develop the sector: Separating the pilgrimage from tourism and the attractive from the unattractive, mechanising services, linking tourism databases with hotels, transport, and airports, linking prices with taxes and setting minimum sales rates based on the quality of the hotel. Prices should not be reduced to attract tourists in times of crisis, in order to avoid long-term negative impacts. The one-stop window method should be used to facilitate projects for tourism investment, and tourism should be linked with airlines, to create direct flights to accommodate passengers from major tourist export markets. International media officials should also be invited to see developments at airports and tourist destinations. We should not get our hopes up and dream. We must work without forgetting that Egypt is at war and tourism is a fragile industry that is targeted. We must be prepared for all possibilities.
