Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty told Egypt's state news agency on Thursday that a new museum will open at the Cairo International Airport.
The museum, part of a massive country-wide overhaul in Egypt's tourism industry, opens Monday with 38 pieces from different historical periods; El-Damaty told the news agency the move will help boost transit tourism.
Egypt's tourism industry is facing an uncertain future in the aftermath of the MetroJet airplane crash. Battered by years of political turmoil, Egypt's tourism sector took another blow after the Oct. 31 Russian passenger plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula that killed all 224 people on board, mostly Russian vacationers.
Following the crash, the United Kingdom suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, and Russia suspended all flights to Egypt, also banning EgyptAir from flying to Moscow.
Egypt, once a thriving tourism epicenter, never really recovered from the 2011 Arab Spring. In 2010, Egypt welcomed 14.7 million visitors — the year after, it dropped to 9.8 million. It has stayed around that figure ever since.
In September, Minister of Tourism Khaled Ramy was optimistic for a tourism rebound: "We expect an increase in tourist numbers by 7% by the end of this year, compared to 10 million tourists last year," Ramy told Daily News Egypt. Earlier in the year, Ramy told Reuters that Egypt planned to create two new resorts with nearly $1 billion of investment over five years and hire a private company to run a three-year advertising campaign to highlight the country's beaches, monuments, deserts and diving destinations.
At the time he said of security for tourists: "As you have seen here in Sharm El-Sheikh, I don't think even a rat from the desert could come in and do anything."
The United States warns citizens in Egypt to exercise caution: "The U.S. Embassy restricts its employees and their family members from traveling outside of Cairo without prior approval and advises all U.S. citizens to carefully consider the security implications of travel outside of the greater Cairo metropolitan area," the Department of State's website reads.
Of course, tourism still exists in Egypt — but the changes since the Arab Spring are definite. Many travelers proceed with caution while the Egyptian tourism industry does their best to draw them back. Here are just some of the many projects that officials hope do just that.
Luxor
On Nov. 5, Egypt opened three new tombs in Luxor to the public.
Egypt's Antiquities Minister Mamdouh El-Damaty said the newly opened tombs in the Qurnat Marey area of Luxor are among the most important, built for nobles of the New Kingdom period, which ended more than 3,000 years ago. The opening, planned before the airline disaster, was part of a government plan to highlight new archaeological sites to international tourists.
Officials hope that Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings could also reveal new secrets. Researchers are scanning the tomb with infrared thermography in hopes of discovering a new antechamber. Egyptologists speculate that the tomb could conceal two unexplored doorways, one of which perhaps leads to the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, fabled for her beauty and famous since her bust was discovered in 1912.
"We will scan to find what is behind the burial chamber," El-Damaty said. "We will find something." If not Nefertiti, "maybe another grand lady."
GIZA
Egypt's most iconic destinations are pulling out all the stops for tourists: The Great Sphinx of Giza reopened in 2014 after three years of renovations and secrets hidden in one of the pyramids could soon be revealed.
El-Damaty held a press conference on Nov. 11 to announce a breakthrough in solving the mysteries of the pyramids of Giza.
At the base of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, Giza's largest pyramid, Egyptologists have found temperature differences between stone blocks, which could indicate previously undiscovered hidden chambers.
“I think this will be the start of a new science for Egyptologists,” El-Damaty said.
“It is amazing that there is yet another passageway — or more than one — inside the pyramid,” Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo told National Geographic. “It will help explain the method of construction of this monument.”
Sinai Peninsula
President of Egypt Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi made a surprise visit to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport shortly after the Metrojet crash, seeking to reassure tourists that the vacation destination is safe: "Our visit today aims to reassure people inside and outside Egypt," el-Sissi said after greeting some foreign tourists and wading through a packed terminal at the Red Sea resort in the Sinai Peninsula.
"We want people who come here to be secure and safe and to live and go back safely to their countries,"
"We want people who come here to be secure and safe and to live and go back safely to their countries," he told Egyptian broadcaster CBC.
Even so, countries including the U.S. prohibit government personnel from traveling in the region.
"U.S. Embassy personnel in Egypt are currently prohibited from traveling to the Sinai, except by air to Sharm El Sheikh," the U.S. Department of State website cautions travelers. "Overland personal travel by U.S. government employees anywhere in the Sinai outside of Sharm El Sheikh is prohibited. The security situation in the northern Sinai area ... remains dangerous due to continuing violence."
The Sinai Peninsula has a recent history of tumult, but Sharm el-Sheikh was regarded as a safe pocket in the warm-weather destination, drawing many Russians and British.
Alexandria
Almost 20 years after plans were first announced, Alexandria is on its way to opening an underwater museum.
After a catastrophic earthquake in the middle ages, much of historic Alexandria was submerged underwater. But soon the Underwater Archaeological Museum of Alexandria will bring many of Alexandria's sunken treasures back into view.
Jacques Rougerie, the architect behind the project, has designed a 270,000 square foot space divided into two parts: one collection above the water for already-recovered artifacts, and another under the water for those still submerged. Visitors will be able to see the sunken treasures by diving, walking inside the museum's underwater tunnels or taking a glass submarine.
The museum has mapped about 2,000 antiquities laying below the water just off the coast of Alexandria. Included among those are Cleopatra's Palace, the lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the seven wonders of the world), and the Citadel of Qaitbay.
A combination of environmental factors and Egypt's tumultuous political uprising pushed production on the museum back nearly 20 years: The “crux of the problem is Alexandria’s polluted water," Mohammed Mustafa, head of the Ministry of Antiquities’ General Directorate of Sunken Antiquities, told Al-Monitor. "It is difficult to spot archaeological sites in muddy waters, especially those that have been submerged for decades."
At the moment, there is no projected completion date for the $150 million project — though officials are optimistic about the eventual impact of the museum.
“The museum will reshape the Arab region, as it will be the first of its kind in the world," Youssef Khalifa, the chairman of the Central Administration of Lower Egypt Antiquities, told Al-Monitor. "Undoubtedly it will revive tourism and boost the Egyptian economy after a long recession."
For the moment, visitors wishing to see the underwater ruins of Alexandria can scuba dive in the harbor.
"Egypt needs tourists — tourism is the main economy," Brigitte Crumpler, Egypt specialist for Audley Travel, told Mashable. Tourism accounts for 11.3% of the country's GDP.
"We have been dealing with the situation in Egypt over the past few years and there have been times when we have not allowed people to travel there," she said. "However, now is actually an extremely good time to travel in Egypt, as the sites are virtually empty of tourists. It is like the early days of travel in Egypt when only the very rich could afford to travel there."
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