Egypt Into The Abyys? By: Larry Johnson The folly of the Arab Spring, and Obama’s embrace of this madness, is now quite clear. Thanks to either the naiveté or inattention of Barack Obama, Islamic extremism has spread throughout the Middle East and raised the specter of a regional war. The turmoil gripping Egypt is particularly dangerous and is not likely to abate in the near term. Egypt does not have the ability to feed itself. Religious fervor is one thing. Hunger trumps it every time. Egypt’s economy depends on tourism and that sector is in trouble. Folks from all nations, at least prior to the protests and unrest that led to Mubarak’s ouster, flocked to Egypt visit the antiquities that line the river Nile and explore the National Museum, which houses the remains of King Tut, among others. I visited in November 2009. This industry has provided the livelihood for millions of Egyptians–the taxi drivers who haul folks to and from the airport and the hotels, the guides who staff the Pyramids and other historical sites, food vendors, hotel personnel, papyrus art studios and restauranteurs. Oh, and the boats. A major part of the tourist economy involves small cruise ships, which are miniature versions of the ships that haul tourists throughout the Caribbean, that travel down the Nile between Aswan and Luxor. There are, or were, hundreds of this ships. Each could carry around 100 passengers. They stop at every major archeological site and tourists scramble off to walk the ruins and buy trinkets. It is quite involved, or at least was. Now? This article, just published in Egypt tonight, tells the sad tale: With violence and political turmoil across Egypt, the tourism sector, accounting for an average of about 11.3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), deteriorated to its lowest levels after a 2010 peak. In April 2013, the Ministry of Tourism resorted to urging tourists to launch a donation campaign to complete the establishment of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a project that had suffered delays amid ongoing instability. The sector, which employs about 2.83 million professionals, is set for further blows as the country gears up for another fresh spate of protests starting 30 June which has already shown violent trends. Opponents of Morsi, spearheaded by a youth campaign dubbed “Tamarod” (Rebellion), have called for nationwide protests on 30 June, which marks the end of Morsi’s first year in power. On 26 June, Morsi delivered a speech to highlight his accomplishments in which he said that the number of tourists increased by 1 million, a figure still weighed on by political instability. “In one year, there have been more than 7700 sit-ins and more than 5800 protests, with violence marring some.” He added “how can tourists come to a country where there are road-blocks, lobbed Molotovs and satellite channels airing this?” . . . . In March 2013, clashes broke out at the Semiramis Hotel, one of Cairo’s oldest and most luxurious hotels. The hotel was surrounded by clouds of tear gas and protesters took refuge in its entrance, which drove tour organizers to cancel bookings at the hotel. Many tour organizers decided against arranging trips to Egypt as calls for protests renewed. “Tourism declined further since activists’ calls began to revive the 2011 revolution and oust Morsi’s regime,” Amr Sedky, deputy chairman of the Tourism Chamber’s board of directors, told the Daily News Egypt. The sector faced a series of bad news over the past year. Last August, militants attacked a checkpoint near the Rafah border crossing, which resulted in 16 Egyptian border guards were killed and 7 injured. Two days after, Egypt Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou said that “this fatal attack on Egyptian soil is not affecting tourism.” On 26 February 2013, a hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, killing 19 out of 21 passengers. It was the deadliest ballooning disaster in history, surpassing the 1989 Alice Springs hot air balloon crash in Australia.” The death of the American student, who resided in my former neck of the woods in Chevy Chase, Maryland, will further dampen prospects for Americans pumping any more tourist dollars into this evolving nightmare. The protests set for Sunday are not likely to reassure prospective tourists that Egypt is the place to go.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 11:37:01 +0000