“The season is down”, “It is dead”, “It is gone” say the locals in Sharm el-Sheikh, the one-time touristic pearl of Sinai and the largest city in its southern region.  It is where Mubarak spent the last decade of his rule and where tourism flourished as it was deemed the most beautiful city in the world ten years ago.  Dubbed “the city of peace” by UNESCO years ago, Sharm el-Sheikh’s prosperity is now a distant memory.

The arrival

“The season is down”, “It is dead”, “It is gone” say the locals in Sharm el-Sheikh, the one-time touristic pearl of Sinai and the largest city in its southern region.  It is where Mubarak spent the last decade of his rule and where tourism flourished as it was deemed the most beautiful city in the world ten years ago.  Dubbed “the city of peace” by UNESCO years ago, Sharm el-Sheikh’s prosperity is now a distant memory.

The arrival

The autobus heading from Ismailiya to Sharm el-Sheikh was supposed to arrive at 7:00 am, but it was canceled due to the state of emergency and nationwide curfew, although the curfew was not imposed in Sharm el-Sheikh.  We waited for the 11:00 am bus to Ahmad Hamdi Tunnel to then take a taxi to Sharm el-Sheikh.  After two hours of waiting, a tourist bus arrived and agreed to transport me and the other passengers. “It was impossible to do this before the deterioration of conditions, but the bus company has resorted to transporting Egyptian passengers in an attempt to compensate its losses after the recession of tourism in the area,” said Muhammad Zayed, the bus driver who stressed that tourist bus ticket prices increased by 40 percent in comparison to regular buses. “We have no choice,” said one of the passengers.

Exhaustive security measures

The intense security checkpoints on the road have exhausted the passengers and prolonged the journey’s duration, even if the passengers were aware of the need to restrict the movement of terrorists.

When we arrived, car owners waiting for any newcomer surrounded us, offering transportation to any place inside the city.  Ali, my driver, told me this was his last day working in Sharm el-Sheikh because the drop in the number of passengers. He would go back to work in el-Tor city, he said, like some of his relatives and friends in search of more job opportunities.

The lack of security in ‘the city of peace’ was what concerned most of the people we met. Security tensions since the revolution and especially after June 30 contributed greatly to the drop in foreign tourism.  and increased harassment towards vendors to tourists in Nama Bay which, in one incident, compelled an Arab tourist to stay in his hotel room, fearing the threats of a camel owner after a quarrel about the fare, said hotel manager Ayman Fouli.

Sixteen year resident Mustafa Khafagi,  a hotels maintenance manager said: “Rescue cars that used to take three minutes to reach have become a miracle to find since the revolution.” He added, “The basic infrastructure in the city has collapsed as the paving of the marine sports road is still not finished and the hygiene situation has deteriorated—mosquitos are everywhere and camel dung is all over the streets.”

Egyptian tourism… a scandal

Ayman believes activating internal tourism would compensate for the drop in foreign tourists.

However, Ammar Ghanem, Tourism Marketing Manager, said the behavior of Egyptian tourists resulted in great losses and constant penalties. “No tourism is better than an industry revived by the Egyptians,” he said.

He explained that Egyptians have several attributes that result in loses for the tourism sector including their lack of commitment to excursion schedules, which irritates foreign tourists who cancel their reservation in response. “They are loud and they have an exaggerated food consumption. They are a scandal,” he said.

On the other hand, Taha Fouad, Services Manager at Nile Company for Desert Roads, justified these behaviors saying: “Egyptians are unable to afford recreational activities.” He said organizing a trip which does not exceed EGP 500 (US $72) per person is a high cost for an Egyptian, especially one with a family.”

Recession affects all

The drop in expenditure led the professional labor to migrate from the city. “Low-cost services offered for consumers have increased the cost of raw material and services for hotels which resulted in decreased revenues and even losses for owners of tourist enterprises and consequently, employees’ wages have been demoted.

Ahmad Abdul Baki, Marketing Manager, convinced the owner to make 50% discount on the chalets prices, but that did not attract new buyers.  Milad Mubarak, Parachute Journeys Organizer, now makes only 10 flights a day whereas he used to conduct double this number since current tourists cannot afford such activities. Rimone Georges, Cruise Organizer, experienced the same issue and said the prices have dropped 70 percent but still that has not attracted tourists.

Solutions and implementation

Several solutions were proposed to rescue the recessed tourism at Sharm el-Sheikh. Ayman Fouli said it could be turned to an independent city just like Luxor managed by professional figures specialized in tourism marketing in addition to bringing back kinds of tourism have that almost become extinct in Sharm el-Sheikh despite being the reason of its fame such as conferences tourism. The largest city hotel which hosted the most important international conferences earlier is almost broke now.

Mustafa Khafagi stressed the importance of obliging hotels with tourism fees depending on the service level in addition to rehabilitating Bazaars’ vendors. Rimone Georges suggested creating recreational touristic enterprises as an alternative to the traditional ones.

They all agreed that state apparatus shall collaborate to restore security in the city of peace again.

Before leaving the city, garage owner Ayman Faek said: “The intensive security measures all over the road to Sharm el-Sheikh are useless, evident by the latest assault on the security directorate of Southern Sinai,” he claimed. “The nominal intensity of security measures, random arrests against some citizens and fabricated charges will contribute in creating a new generation of terrorism which is indignant with the state and non-belonging.”