The new customs declaration imposed on travellers to Egypt may well hinder the tourist movement, discovers Rehab Saad Travel agents worry that recent regulations imposed by the Egyptian Customs Administration (ECA) will unfavourably affect tourist traffic to Egypt, at a time when the country is trying to attain a target of 14 million tourists by the year 2010. The new customs declaration stipulates that any traveller, whether Egyptian or foreigner, must declare the amount of money he is carrying if it is over $10,000. Moreover, he must declare all the contents of his luggage. Khaled El-Manaway, head of the Egyptian Travel Agents Association (ETAA) which represents tourism's private sector, complained that the new customs declaration was implemented without any coordination with any tourist authority whatsoever. Moreover, El-Manaway argued that the regulation regards all travellers as suspects, and adds more time to airport procedures. "The declaration is only written in Arabic and English, whereas there are millions of foreign travellers who do not understand English, so they refuse to sign a declaration that obligates them legally without fully understanding its articles," he stated. This results in representatives of travel agents translating the document, causing long delays and overcrowding at various exit points. "Imagine, this happens at Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada airports on Saturday and Sunday, where 55 or 80 aircraft land at nearly the similar time," El-Manaway protested. While the ECA claims the decision is in line with state policy to combat money laundering, El-Manaway countered that the move goes beyond preventing such crimes. "There's nothing wrong with declaring the amount of money travellers are carrying," he stated. "But what's the relation between money laundering and declaring 200 cigarettes or the number of bags the traveller is taking?" He further asserted that other countries which signed the international money laundering agreement, such as Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey and Greece, do not impose such oppressive procedures. Travel agents fear that customs declaration will severely affect Arab tourism to Egypt, especially that the summer season is approaching. This is especially so since Arab tourists do not much depend on credit cards in their monetary transactions, and prefer to use cash. In a letter to Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garanah, the ETAA president pointed out that customs declaration contradicts the state's policy of encouraging tourism and simplifying procedures. It also weakens Egypt's ability to compete with other destinations in the region, and is contradictory to the state's attempts at a free economy. Garanah, however, disagrees that the new regulation will hinder tourist movement. "The propaganda against the move is extremely exaggerated because this is a purely organisational process which doesn't harm tourism," he said. "The new measure does not stop any traveller from carrying any amount of money they want, but only asks that it is declared upon entering the country." The minister added that all countries around the world require travellers to declare the money they are carrying if it is over a certain amount set by the state. Garanah argued that this procedure never hindered tourist movement to most developed countries, and further asserted that the procedure only takes a few minutes and that there have been no complaints about it so far.
