It’s murder on the Nile

KARIM EL SHARKAWY, the boss of Tarot Tours Garranah, one of Egypt’s biggest tourism operators, clocks in every morning at the firm’s offices in Cairo, and expects his staff to do the same. Strict timekeeping is a new experience for his employees. But the company, like its rivals, is having to do all it can to contain costs as it suffers a fierce downturn with no end in sight.

The revolution of 2011 dealt a heavy blow to Egypt’s tourism industry, which in 2013 directly or indirectly employed 2.9m people or 11.5% of the country’s workforce—down from 3.7m and 15.5% in 2010. The frequent bouts of violence since the uprising, played out on news bulletins around the world, have discouraged many visitors from returning. Last year only 9m came, 5m fewer than in 2010. Egypt’s tourism receipts are down from $12.5 billion then to an estimated $5.8 billion in 2013.

For businesses that serve tourists, the downturn feels even worse than those figures suggest. Tarot Tour’s fleet of tourist buses, its riverboats on the Nile and its dozen hotels on the Red Sea coast have emptied out. Its revenues are now just 30% of what they were before the revolution. At least, unlike most rivals, it has a big parent to keep it going: it is part of Orascom, a conglomerate whose interests stretch from construction to telecoms.

Tarot Tour’s beach resorts are doing less badly than other bits of the business, despite fierce competition from more stable countries. Just to show holidaymakers they are safe, the tourism ministry has installed webcams. Yet the most profitable customers used to be the culture vultures who combine trips to the monuments of Luxor and Aswan with a visit to the pyramids near the capital. Now these higher-spending tourists are anxious about passing through Cairo and tend to call off the whole trip. Instead, beach resorts are attracting more bargain hunters. As a result, the average spending per tourist—and hence profits—have dropped.