Abandoned Egypt suffers

As supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi prepare for a face-off on Sunday, a mushrooming problem for Egypt arises from the people not there – the tourists.

“The situation of tourism has become disastrous,” Moataz al-Sayed, head of the tour guides syndicate told IPS. A large number of hotels have closed down, he said. Accidents involving scores of boats have sent worrying signals to tourists and tour operators. In many popular resorts, the occupancy rate in hotels has dropped to less than 6 percent.

The U.S. warning over travel to Egypt only comes on top of the many worrying signals.

No signal is more worrying to tourism than the political one. A glaring example, Sayed said, was the appointment of Adel Mohamed al-Khayat, a former leader of Gamaa Islamiya and now a member of its political arm, as the new governor of Luxor.[pullquote]3[/pullquote]

The Islamist group Gamaa Islamiya is held responsible for the Temple of Hatshepsut massacre in 1997 in which 62 tourists were killed. The Gamaa Islamiya is classified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group.

More than a million workers in tourism have quit, Sayed said. Among tour guides the unemployment rate has jumped to 90 percent, and the national loss to tourism has crossed 4 billion dollars.

In 2010, Egypt received 14.7 million tourists. It was at 18th position in an index of countries receiving the most international tourists. It has now slipped to 32nd position.

Sayed said President Mohammed Morsi is eradicating tourism through his policies. The Islamist president has made efforts to welcome tourists from Iran, but the number of those who have come from there is estimated to be less than a thousand.