No need to worry about tourism, assures Islamist forces, reports Amani Maged The Islamist rise in Egypt has stirred widespread anxieties, especially among workers in the tourist industry. The successes of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis in the first two rounds of parliamentary elections and the anticipation of similar results in the third round, scheduled for the first week of January, have sent tremors through the tourist investment sector. On Tuesday 27 December the Association of Egyptian Businessmen met to discuss the economic impact of the Islamist rise and an Islamist-dominated parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which won the largest percentages of the vote in the first two rounds, was officially invited to attend with the purpose of establishing a channel of dialogue between the business community and the Brotherhood over economic issues in general and the crisis in the tourist sector in particular. This sector has been reeling as the result of the security situation and the "political uncertainty". Hotel occupancy in Sharm El-Sheikh is down to 20 per cent, for example, and the government has been forced to dip into the Crisis and Emergency Fund in order to pay the salaries of public sector tourist employees. So far, only a portion of the pay slips for February have been issued, while those for following months are still pending. Al-Ahram Weekly met with FJP leaders responsible for that party's policy on tourism in order to obtain their perspective on how to rescue and develop this vital sector of the economy. Ahmed Suleiman, who heads the FJP's development committee, is fully confident in the potential of tourism in Egypt. With its cumulative legacy of Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic and Islamic civilisations, its idyllic climate and diverse natural habitats, and the well- known hospitality and friendliness of the Egyptian people, Egypt is unparalleled for its ability to attract tourists. At the same time Suleiman stressed how crucial tourism is for the Egyptian economy. As an industry, an export activity and a major source of foreign currency, tourism is a primary component of the national income and a fundamental source for the creation of hundreds of thousands of job opportunities. Therefore, the FJP will pit itself "heart and soul" behind the development of the tourist sector. Towards this end, he said, the party has conceived a number of plans and projects. One is to protect the tourist areas in old Egyptian cities and along the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts and to prevent the encroachment of unplanned urban growth around these areas. The FJP is also keen to encourage private sector involvement and to attract foreign investment in tourism. It also intends to instruct all government agencies connected with tourism, such as the ministries of aviation, transportation, information, culture and environment, to do their utmost to support and promote this sector through the activities they include in their annual plan. Ahmed Abu Baraka of the FJP leadership says, "promoting the tourist product at the Arab and international levels through the implementation of plans to stimulate tourism in its major markets, to study these markets and to explore the creation of new markets are among our top priorities." He believes that hotel capacity can be increased through the development of existing tourist destinations and targeting new ones with an eye to diversifying and improving the quality of tourist services. But in order to stimulate a real tourist boom, Abu Baraka said, it will also be important to upgrade and develop infrastructure, from road, water and electricity networks to communications and domestic and foreign airline services. Any obstacles to the flow of tourism should be ironed out, he said. The idea is to ensure a top quality tourist service from the point of arrival through departure. The tourist should experience relatively quick and easy customs procedures, smooth transportation to a suitable hotel, high quality hotel service, easily bookable tours and relevant tourist information. Abu Baraka also suggested the creation of top grade specialised hospitals to encourage medical tourism, as well as programmes for developing conference, scientific, cultural and religious tourism. In addition, he said, ecological tourism should be stimulated through the identification and development of land and aquatic nature reserves. Abu Baraka would also like to hasten the realisation of the dream of a Gulf of Aqaba land bridge that would link Egypt with Saudi Arabia. The project would facilitate overland travel between North Africa and the Levant. In addition to the obvious economic benefits this would bring to Egypt as the point of transit, it would also encourage the lifting of customs and visa barriers between Arab countries, stimulate domestic tourism, and enhance the sense of identity through greater familiarity with Egyptian history and civilisation. According to Abu Baraka, the Muslim Brotherhood sees tourism as a productive rather than merely a service sector. As an industry with numerous branches and which overlaps with many other sectors of the economy, it has the potential to accommodate a large portion of the labour force, especially when one considers Egypt's vast and diverse tourist potential, much of which has yet to be fully exploited. The FJP believes that the tourist industry offers the urgently needed remedy for Egypt's economic woes. Therefore, not only should the industry and its employees be protected but all efforts should be made to improve its capacity and productivity. This, in turn, will require higher levels of investment, solutions to infrastructural problems, and the development of a comprehensive database that would facilitate the identification of areas for potential investment and ways of optimising economic returns so as to increase the tourist sector's share in the GDP. Abu Baraka suggests that through the implementation of a carefully devised and executed plan it should soon be possible to increase the number of tourists that visit Egypt annually to 60 million. In fact, the FJP leadership has already gone beyond the planning phase. Its Alexandria branch has signed an agreement with the Turkish ambassador to Egypt that will set into motion an ambitious advertising campaign promoting Egyptian tourist attractions on Turkish television free of charge. The FJP's economic development committee has already been in touch with the Ministry of Tourism to agree over material that is ready to be broadcast in Turkey or that may only need to be dubbed into Turkish. The agreement is looked at as testimony to the strength of Egyptian-Turkish relations. On the matter of alcohol consumption in hotels, many FJP members have suggested that this falls under the category of the basic right to freedom in the privacy of one's home and that it should remain outside the bounds of any possible alcohol ban. As for beach resort tourism, FJP officials, who are keen to reassure society and support tourism, say that they will not ban this either.
