“I lost my livelihood after the revolution and I am no longer able to make ends meet,” said 44 year-old tourist guide Iman al-Laithi.
“Before the revolution I used to earn around 15000 Egyptian pounds a month (US $2500), but afterwards my monthly income dropped to a few hundred pounds. We were the first scapegoats of the revolution”. She said that there are around 16000 tourist guides who are currently suffering the same harsh conditions.
“I lost my livelihood after the revolution and I am no longer able to make ends meet,” said 44 year-old tourist guide Iman al-Laithi.
“Before the revolution I used to earn around 15000 Egyptian pounds a month (US $2500), but afterwards my monthly income dropped to a few hundred pounds. We were the first scapegoats of the revolution”. She said that there are around 16000 tourist guides who are currently suffering the same harsh conditions.
While the Egyptian revolution amazed the whole world, particularly during the first 18 days, the transitional period shattered that poetic image of the Tahrir Sqaure rebels, as a result of the tragic and bloody events that followed. The Egyptian tourism industry paid the highest price, claiming the biggest economic loss, including thousands of lay-offs and the closure of many hotels. Tourism has become a slack business after it had been the biggest economic tributary before the revolution.
Transitional chaos upsets the industry
Tourist expert and member of the Egyptian Tourist Federation, Adel Abdel Razzaq, blames the transition era sit-ins, strikes, the blockage of roads and railways, in addition to the lack of security and the abduction of some tourists by outlaws. All these factors, he said, have helped maintain the deteriorating condition of tourism, which is an industry as delicate as the stock market.
According to Mr. Abdel Razzaq, the industry lost more than $10 billion during the past 18 months, while it was supposed to earn more than $20 billion. He added that the current hotel occupancy rates in Cairo are only at 25% and in Luxor, a town called the museum of history, this rate dropped now to 7%. Only five out of 283 ferryboats in Egypt are now operating.
Wartime losses
Tourist bazaar owner and representative of the Luxor tourist guides, Francis Ameen, said that the losses of the tourism sector in Egypt are the biggest since the 1967 War.
“All our earnings over the past 18 months don’t amount to a quarter of what we used to achieve in a single month before the revolution,” he said.
“We were very optimistic after the revolution. We had high expectations that things would go back to normal, especially after the beautiful image the rebels drew in the Tahrir Sqaure, but the transitional period shattered those hopes.”
However, professor of economics and finance at Cairo University, Hisham Ibrahim, doesn’t share the pessimism of tourist workers. He believes that the losses and the huge drop in tourist numbers are expected after any revolution.
Ibrahim added that tourism in Egypt is used to violent shocks but it can bounce back and become even stronger. “What we gained during the revolution was lost during the transitional period, as a result of the atmosphere of political uncertainty and the violence that claimed many young lives.”
Misleading media image
Ibrahim said President Morsi should promote tours to stimulate the tourism industry given that the number of tourists dropped from 14 million before the revolution to around 7 million now.
Ibrahim believes that the local and foreign media are giving a misleading image about political Islam as being anti-tourism and anti-foreigners, when, he argued, that Islamists did nothing of the sort.
In fact, Ibrahmi said, a number of Freedom and Justice Party members gave gifts to tourists visiting the Egyptian Museum in an attempt to send a letter of reassurance to the world that Egypt was and will always be welcoming of tourists on its soil.
