SHARM EL-SHEIKH - Egypt's Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah has blamed cancellations of future reservations in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on the ten-day focus of foreign media on the shark attacks earlier this month. "We have 65 per cent cancellations of future reservations for Sharm el-Sheikh due to the media focus on the shark attacks. However, the old reservations had little impact," Garranah told the Parliament. He added that the Ministry of Tourism's Crisis Commission was closely following up the attacks. "However, four consecutive attacks in four consecutive days led to that situation although only 22 shark attacks have been recorded since 1993," he said. Earlier this month, a German tourist was killed and four other foreigners were injured in four shark attacks leading tourism and local authorities to close some beaches for more than two weeks. The beaches were reopened this week after some regulations were set. "We have trained 100 rescuers to deal with sharks. Around 600 others will be trained soon for the same reason," Garranah said. With more than 11 per cent of Egypt's gross domestic product stemming from tourism, the Government quickly flew in top world scientists to find an answer as to why the behaviour of sharks would change so abruptly. With the reopening of the beaches nets and ropes have been placed in the water to mark the maximum distance allowed to swim out and emergency patrol boats are stationed throughout the coastline.
