The tourism sector has been dealt another blow in the wake of last week's border attack. While the statistics may not be encouraging, there is a fix -- greater security, experts tell Rasha Sadek The Rafah attack on 5 August, in which 35 masked gunmen left 16 soldiers dead and seven severely injured, has added to the woes of an already troubled travel sector, which has been struggling as a result of the security vacuum that followed the 25 January Revolution. The recent Sinai border attack has cost the tourism industry an average of 12 per cent when compared to the same period last year, Hisham Zazou, the minister of tourism, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The east coast of the Sinai Peninsula, which comprises the cities of Taba, Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh, has been affected to various degrees by the Rafah attack. Taba, which depends mainly on Israeli and Arab-Israeli travellers, has been the least affected. "No cancellations have been reported since the recent border attack. We have an occupancy rate of 70 per cent, just like last year," Mohamed Magdi, reservations manager at a five-star hotel in Taba, said. Magdi said that discount offers of up to 25 per cent have also managed to lure visitors, despite the security alerts against travelling to Sinai that have been frequently issued by foreign countries. Striking a less optimistic note was Samer Ali, owner of a resort in Nuweiba's Tarabeen Bay. "We are more visited by European and Egyptian holidaymakers. Usually we are 80 per cent occupied, but we're now down to five per cent. Before the border attack, we had hopes of bouncing back during the Eid holidays [next week], but almost all European travellers have cancelled their reservations after the issuing of security warnings." "Meanwhile, Egyptian travellers are rethinking their vacations due to road hazards such as protesters blocking highways." The "catastrophic repercussions" of the attack, as Ali put it, on the tourism sector need to be addressed immediately if the crisis is to be contained. "Security has to be strictly enforced across the border, and the tunnels [between Gaza and Sinai] have to be sealed," he said. Wesam Hamed, head of public and international relations at the Ministry of Tourism, nodded her agreement. "The tunnels are bad for tourism, not only in Sinai, but also across the country. Commuting through the crossings has to be regulated. Security is the key to bringing back the tourists. Until then, tourism will remain in the doldrums." A major development scheme should also be carried out in Sinai to bring tourism back up to pre-revolution levels, Hamed told the Weekly. "Meanwhile, reassuring messages are being sent out by the president, who visited Luxor, and the prime minister, who went to the Pyramids area last week." Yet, Ahmed El-Bakri, the head of a travel agency, sees no point in such messages. "Even if the president visited every single tourist destination it would not be enough for tourism to recover as long as the chaos and instability are not tackled," he said. Like many others, El-Bakri had expected a surge in the number of tourists this month, a Sinai high season, especially among Europeans. But that was not to be. "Travel is a very fragile industry," he added. According to figures released by former minister of tourism Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the country received six million vacationers this year, 9.8 million in 2011 and 14.7 million in 2010. "During the last quarter of 2011, tourism was hit hard by the unrest in Cairo and Sinai. European visitors, who comprise the largest group of travellers, dropped by 35 per cent to 7.2 million, as opposed to 11.1 million in 2010," Abdel-Nour said. Since the revolution, incidents like the one at Rafah and the August 2011 border clashes, which flared up after Israeli troops shot dead five Egyptian security and military personnel, have taken their toll on a sector that brings in 27 per cent of the country's revenues. South Sinai and the Red Sea areas comprise 70 per cent of tourism-related revenue, while Sharm El-Sheikh alone brings in 30 per cent of the overall figure, according to official estimates. What Minister of Tourism Zazou fears most is not today's figures, but rather "the slowdown in future reservations. Contributing to this is the fact that countries like Russia, Belgium and Italy have raised their travel alerts on travel to Egypt. The Red Sea area and Marsa Matrouh have reported 12 per cent drops in occupancy rates, and Sharm El-Sheikh has reported an eight per cent drop." "We hope that the Armed Forces operation in Sinai and the efforts of the Interior Ministry will restore order and security in order for the travel sector to recover," Zazou added. Tourism, in freefall since the revolution started, employs some four million Egyptians, most of whom must now face the prospect of their careers hanging in mid air. Meanwhile, the Tourism Support Coalition, formed after the revolution, has called for a sit-in to be held on 24 August in Tahrir Square, in order to demand tangible improvements in security and the closing of the Rafah Crossing and tunnels. In a press statement, Ehab Moussa, head of the coalition, said the demands "are not intended to increase the siege on Gaza, but rather to restore stability and security because workers in the tourism sector are no longer able to make ends meet." "I'm still optimistic despite everything," said Nuweiba's Ali. "I've been in the business for 12 years, and I have witnessed the repercussions of the bombings in Taba, Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh [between 2004 and 2006], as well as the revolution and last year's border clashes." "Every time, we've bounced back. All we've got to do is be patient. This, too, shall pass."
