Tourism is one of the most important parts of Egypt's economy. Approximately 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010, providing revenues of nearly $12.5 billion.At its peak the sector employed about 12% of Egypt's workforce as well as contributing more than 11% of GDP and 14.4% of foreign currency revenues.
The number of tourists in Egypt stood at 0.1 million in 1951. Tourism as an important sector of the economy picked up pace from 1975 onwards, as Egypt eased visa restrictions for almost all European and North American countries and established embassies in new countries like Austria, Netherlands, Denmark and Finland.
In 1976, tourism was strongly included in the Five Year Plan of the Government, where 12 % of the budget was allocated to upgrading state-owned hotels, establishing a loan fund for private hotels, and upgrading infrastructure, including roads, rail and air connectivity in major tourist centers in the coastal areas.
In 1979, tourism experts and specialists were brought in from Turkey and several new colleges were established to teach diploma courses in hospitality and tourism management. The tourist inflow increased to 1.8 million in 1981 and then to 5.5 million in 2000. The maximum number of tourists 14.7 million visited Egypt in 2010.The revenues from tourism reached its maximum $ 12.5 billion in 2010. Since 2010 the number of tourists significantly declined to 9.5 million in 2013 due to the general unrest in the country, while revenue declined to $ 5.9 billion.
In the first half of 2014 the number of tourists further declined by 25 % as compared with the same period of 2013, while revenues shrank by 25% as well.This was due to the political unrest in the country and the threat from terrorist attacks from Muslim jihadists.
In 2013, Egypt ranked the 85th position of world's best country in terms of tourism and traveling, while in 2011, it was the 75th.
Significant Tourist Attractions
Most significant tourist attractions of Egypt are the millennia-old monuments for which the Nile Valley is world famous. Remarkable among them are the Pyramids and Great Sphinx at Giza, the Abu Simbel temples south of Aswan and the Karnak Temple Complex and Valley of the Kings near Luxor. Cairo also boasts the Cairo Museum and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha and the coastal areas of Sinai Peninsula are very popular with visitors as well.
Giza, 20 km southwest of Cairo, is the site of some of the most impressive and oldest 26th century ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramids of Giza, a number of other large pyramids and temples, and Cairo's modern tower.
Saqqara, some 30 km south of Cairo is a vast, ancient burial ground which served as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. It features numerous pyramids, including the world's oldest standing step pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas.
Luxor, about 500 km south of Cairo, is the site of the ancient city of Thebes and has sometimes been called "the world's greatest open-air museum". It includes the ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor, which stand within the modern city. On the opposite side of the Nile River lie the monuments, temples and tombs on the West Bank Necropolis, which include the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.
Abu Simbel, about 850 km south of Cairo near the Sudanese border is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples originally carved out of a mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in 13th century BC. The complex was relocated in its entirety in the 1960s to avoid being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser. They are now situated on an artificial hill made from a domed structure high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir.
Alexandria, is a main summer resort, due to its beaches, ancient history and Museums, especially the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern project based on reviving the ancient Library of Alexandria.
Sinai Peninsula, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. Most popular tourist destination in Sinai are Mount Sinai "Jabal Musa" and Saint Catherine's Monastery, which is considered to be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world, and the beach resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba.Dahab in Southern Sinai is a popular beach and diving resort in Sinai.
Ain Sukhna, about 110 km east of Cairo has a number of beach resorts.
Assiut:in south of Egypt, it includes many touristic attractions Pharaonics-Coptic, Islamic and Modern.
Effect of Egyptian Revolution and Terrorism on Tourism
As the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 took place, the national industry of tourism declined. Visitor numbers decreased by some 37% in 2011. The number of visitors was 9 million in 2011 while it was over 14 million in 2010. This has had an influence on all other areas which ranges from travel accommodation to car rental, air transportation, health and wellness and tourist attractions, with value growth rates across the board declining drastically.
Tourism operators introduced heavy discounts in order to drain tourists back and prices remained low at the beginning of 2012. Terrorism has affected the industry in recent times. A total of 58 foreign tourists were killed in the 1997 Luxor massacre. The tourist industry sunk even lower with the September 11 attacks in the eastern United States in 2001, the 2004 Sinai bombings, April 2005 terrorist attacks in Cairo, the July 23, 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, and the 2006 Dahab bombings.
Historically, foreign tourists have been a common target of attacks dating back to the early 1990s. Militants have typically been motivated by opposition to the Mubarak and Sisi regimes, and attacking foreigners including non-Muslims while hurting Egypt's tourist trade.
The 2011 Egyptian revolution has affected tourism negatively, as have attacks on women by groups of men, including British Journalist Natasha Smith and Lara Logan in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Since the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Sinai's scenic spots (including coral reefs offshore) and religious structures have become important to the tourism industry. The most popular tourist destination in Sinai are Mount Sinai (Jabal Musa) and St. Catherine's Monastery, which is considered to be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world, and the beach resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba. Most tourists arrive at Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, through Eilat, Israel and the Taba Border Crossing, by road from Cairo or by ferry from Aqaba in Jordan.
The name Sinai may have been derived from the ancient moon-god Sin or from the Hebrew word Seneh. The peninsula acquired the name due to the assumption that a mountain near Saint Catherine's Monastery is the Biblical Mount Sinai. However this assumption is contested.
The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia, as opposed to Africa, serving as a land bridge between two continents. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypt's 27 governorates with three more straddling the Suez Canal area, and has a population of approximately 1,400,000 people. In addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it as Arḍ ul-Fairūz "the land of turquoise". The ancient Egyptians called it Mafkat, or "land of the green minerals".
The Sinai Peninsula has remained a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt until the 21st century. This comes in stark contrast to the region north of it, the Levant, present-day territories of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, which due largely to its strategic geopolitical location and evolutionary cultural convergences, has historically been the center of conflict between Egypt on the one hand, and one or the other of the states of ancient and medieval Mesopotamia and Asia Minor.
In periods of foreign occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by foreign empires, in more recent history the Ottoman Empire 1517-1867 and the United Kingdom 1882-1956.
Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression due to the simultaneous coordinated attack by the UK, France and Israel of 1956, and during the Six-Day War of 1967. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. By 1982, as a result of the 1973 war and the ensuing Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel had withdrawn from all of the Sinai Peninsula except the contentious territory of Taba, which was returned after a ruling by a commission of arbitration in 1989.
Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths.
Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. Winter temperatures in some of Sinai's cities and towns reach −16 °C (3 °F)
Terrorists Attack Sinai Once More
In recent years, Sinai has been the site of several terror attacks against tourists, the majority of which are Egyptian. Investigations have showed these were mainly motivated by a resentment of the poverty faced by many Bedouin in the area. Attacking the tourist industry was viewed as a method of damaging the industry so that the government would pay more attention to their situation.
Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution unrest has become more prevalent in the area including the 2012 Egyptian-Israeli border attack in which 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed by militants.
Also on the rise are kidnappings of refugees. Eritrean refugees are often kidnapped by Bedouin in the northern Sinai, tortured, raped, and only released after receiving a large ransom for the kidnapped.
Under President el-Sisi, Egypt has implemented a rigurous policy of controlling the border to the Gaza Strip, including the dismantling of tunnels between Gaza and Sinai.
Near-simultaneous raids were launched on at least five military checkpoints and a police station in and around Sheikh Zuweid.The attack was one of the largest co-ordinated assaults yet by IS in Sinai.
Eyewitness reported seeing militants roaming the streets of the northern town clashing with armed forces.
An Egyptian military spokesman, Brig-Gen Mohammed Samir, told state TV later that the situation was "100% under control".Jihadists based in the restive region stepped up their attacks after the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. At least 600 police and armed forces personnel have since been killed.
In a separate development , security officials said nine members of Mr Morsi's now banned Muslim Brotherhood, including former MP Nasr al-Hafi, had been killed in a police raid on a flat in western Cairo.The security situation in Egypt has worsened since the assassination of the public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, in the capital.
The attack in Sheikh Zuweid is one of the biggest of its kind targeting the army in Sinai.
Eyewitnesses say IS-affiliated militants roamed the streets, raising the flags of the extremist group. But it was hard to verify any story in Sinai.The army has enforced a total media blackout on the area since it intensified its fight against jihadists in 2013.
These latest assaults prove that the battle is still far from over. The long military operation, which was meant to restore peace to Sinai has, so far, failed to uproot extremism.President Sisi has vowed to accelerate his crackdown against the "terrorists", a broad term which does not only include extremist fighters in Sinai, but possibly all Islamists.But many question how effective his military solution is.
Gen Samir said more than 70 "terrorists" fired mortar rounds and detonated a car bomb in attacks on five checkpoints in the Sheikh Zuweid area of North Sinai province..
Security and army officials said at least 50 troops had been killed and 55 wounded, and that several had also been taken captive. At least 36 soldiers, policemen and civilians had been killed along with 38 militants.Dr Osama el-Sayed of El-Arish General Hospital said 30 bodies had been brought in, "some of whom were wearing army fatigues".
Islamic State's local affiliate in Sinai Province, later said in a statement posted online that it had targeted 15 security sites and carried out three suicide attacks.Dozens of policemen were inside Sheikh Zuweid's main police station, which they said was coming under mortar- and RPG-fire.
The militants were also reported to have planted bombs along a road between Sheikh Zuweid and a nearby army camp to prevent reinforcements arriving.North Sinai has been under a state of emergency and a curfew since October, when an attack on a checkpoint in El-Arish left dozens of soldiers dead.Police and army patrols have been increased and additional checkpoints have been set up. In addition, a buffer zone along the border with Gaza has been created by demolishing houses and destroying underground tunnels the military says have been used to smuggle weapons from the Palestinian enclave.
Following the deaths in Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement saying that several of its leaders had been "murdered... in cold blood" and urged Egyptians to "rise in revolt" against the actions of the government of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.The interior ministry said the men had been fugitive Brotherhood leaders who were meeting to plan acts of terrorism and sabotage.The Muslim Brotherhood, however, said they were part of its committee supporting the families of detainees and members who had been killed.
Security said the car bomb attack in Cairo that killed Mr Barakat also bore the hallmarks of Sinai Province, which was known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis until it pledged allegiance to Islamic State in November and changed its name.
In a speech at Mr Barakat's funeral, President Sisi promised legal reforms to ensure death sentences could be enforced more swiftly for those convicted of acts of terrorism.
Hours later, a soldier was shot dead outside a museum in southern Cairo and three suspected militants were killed when a car in which they were travelling blew up near a police station in a western suburb.
That is the once peaceful Egypt, today. All Egyptians will be paying the price.
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