CAIRO: Egypt's ministry of tourism this week reported that tourism was down around one-third in comparison to the year before. The ministry said that Egypt expects to have earned some $9 billion in foreign visitors to the country in 2011, a downturn likely resulting from the 18 days of protests that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak and the continued political and social unrest that has seen violence erupt throughout the year. Worrying tourism officials are the comments being made by conservative candidates for parliament, who have called on alcohol to be banned, segregation of beaches and a possible ban on bikinis. Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, confirmed that tourism has been threatened by some candidates in Egypt's parliamentary election who had made “irresponsible” statements, and he vowed to make sure the industry was not harmed. Travel agencies from Britain, Japan, Russia, and Italy– countries that represent major markets for Egypt's tourism industry, have cancelled flights to Egypt in light of the violence that has broken out in the nation. Additionally, some travel agencies have threatened to remove Egypt as a travel destination from their programs entirely if violence does not come to an end in a timely fashion, according to the head of the Egyptian Federation of Tourism Chambers, Elhami Zayat, in an interview with Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper. The tourism industry is normally Egypt's second highest revenue source, behind expatriate remittances. Over the last few months, it has slowly climbed out of the devastation it sustained in the aftermath of the uprisings in January and February. However, following the outbreak of violence last week, “Everything has been affected. It is very slow in Dahab right now. There have been a lot of cancellations,” stated Jimmy Dahab, a hotel and restaurant owner in Dahab, in an interview with Bikyamasr.com. Some business owners partly blame an influx of negative media for the decline. “After the January revolution, after Mubarak left, the media left us alone. It went to Syria and Yemen. Now the media is refocused on Egypt,” added Dahab. Abdel Nour believes that the sector can rebound and his ministry is hopeful that they can continue to support the workers in the industry in the coming year. “We will continue to support the tourism sector, which is a main pillar of the Egyptian economy, and we will work hard to support it … against anyone or anything that would destroy it,” Abdel Nour said. ** Hayden Pirkle contributed to this report. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/fM1GJ No related posts. Tags: featured, Foreigners, Revenue, Revolution, Tourism Section: Egypt, Latest News, Travel
