In talk with Ahram Online, tourism minister allays fears of Islamist govt

Minister of tourism, Mounir Fakhry Abd El-Nour

In exclusive interview with Ahram Online, Mounir Fakhry Abd El-Nour, the liberal minister of tourism, downplays rising concerns that an Islamist electoral landslide will negatively impact flow of foreigners

Salma Shukrallah, Tuesday 6 Dec 2011

Amid concerns over the rise of an Islamist-led parliament, the fate of Egypt’s once-thriving tourism sector is being hotly debated.

Islamist figures have often had to answer tough questions as to their ultimate intentions regarding tourism, especially in terms of their willingness to accept social norms that they have historically rejected.

Some critics, meanwhile, express fear that an Islamist-dominated parliament would jeopardise some LE200 billion ($33.3 billion) worth of tourism investments in Egypt. 

In an interview with Ahram Online, Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abd El-Nour downplayed such worries, however, noting that, "a party’s political discourse changes when it comes to power.”

Abd El-Nour, who has served as tourism minister in three different post-revolution governments, appears confident that an Islamist majority in parliament will not adversely impact Egypt’s tourism industry.

"Any party that takes power will be met with demands to supply more than 80 million Egyptians with food and clothing; provide some 800,000 employment opportunities to fresh university graduates every year; and formulate the state budget while taking responsibility for cutting the budget deficit,” said Abd El-Nour.

“I doubt that anyone facing such responsibilities would want to give up the 12.5 per cent of Egypt's GDP that tourism accounts for, not to mention the job opportunities it creates.”

Along with remittances and Suez Canal receipts, tourism has traditionally represented one of the country’s top foreign currency earners.

Abd El-Nour, a Coptic-Christian member of Egypt’s liberal Wafd Party, insists that an Islamist-led government will not constitute a threat.

The media, he says, tends to depict political Islam as a single, monolithic bloc, even though Islamist parties and groups, he stressed, differ considerably in practical terms.

"The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is not the same as the Salafists,” he pointed out.

“There are also different currents within the MB and differences between the different generations within the MB. The younger generation, for example, tends to be more open."

Statements by the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) regarding the new government, meanwhile, have also raised alarm bells that the MB would not be satisfied with anything less than a parliamentary majority.

FJP head Mohamed Morsi, for his part, has stated that the parliamentary majority should appoint the new government. In response to statements by Egypt’s ruling military council that parliament lacks authority to do so, Morsi has asserted that no government can function practically without the approval of the national assembly.

Abd El-Nour agreed with Morsi’s assertion, saying that the MB’s wheeling and dealing with other parties represented in parliament would lead them to form a coalition government or leave the incumbent Cabinet in office.

Indeed, the MB was one of the few political groups that did not express disapproval of the newly appointed government headed up by former prime minister Kamal El-Ganzouri.

Currently, hundreds of demonstrators are staging a sit-in – which the MB has refrained from endorsing – in front of the Cabinet building to reject the appointment of El-Ganzouri, who also served as prime minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Tahrir demonstrators had at one point proposed a government of “national salvation” to be headed by would-be presidential contender Mohamed ElBaradei, former MB leader and presidential hopeful Abd El-Moneim Abu El-Fotouh, and Nasserist presidential candidate Hamdin El-Sabahy.

Abd El-Nour, for his part, believes the national salvation initiative lacked popular consensus.

Despite Abd El-Nour’s seeming confidence that Islamist politicians would merely seek to build bridges with their parliamentary counterparts, he went on to say that the Wafd Party’s failed electoral coalition with the MB had been a mistake from the outset.

According to the tourism minister, the Wafd – being Egypt’s oldest liberal political party – should have reached out to other liberal parties, such as those in the recently established Egyptian Bloc.

The Egyptian Bloc – which includes the liberal Free Egyptians, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and the leftist Tagammu Party – represented the main non-Islamist challenger in the country’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary polls.

Where do you Sphinx they've all gone?

Tourists deserting Egyptian pyramids show what a difference a year makes for troubled region

By RICK DEWSBURY

It's one of the greatest tourist attractions on earth.
Fantastic shades of multi-colour illuminate the awesome pyramids dominating the Egyptian night sky to the delight of tourists.
Yet this awe-inspiring spectacle remains virtually deserted every night as holidaymakers shun the 'jewel of the Middle East'.
Sombre pictures taken this week show the rows of empty seats at the Light and Sound Show, below the historic pyramids in Cairo.

Only a handful of sightseers and a few despondent tour guides can be seen at the iconic landmark, which includes the Great Sphinx.
Only a year earlier the show had been fully-booked every night. Dozens of tourists cooed as they watched the landmarks change to shades of purple, green, red and blue among others. Vast beams of light were shot into the air by high-tech lasers.
Egypt had been on the verge of its own economic revolution, with booming tourism and impressive developments of apartments, offices and flats around the country.
But this revolution went no further. In its place were the scenes of violence and mass protest in Tahrir Square in February which became known as the 'Arab Spring'.

Nine months later and a new country has been born. But as the empty seats at Cairo show, tourism today is a shadow of what it once was.
Holidaymakers have shunned the troubled region for fear of being caught up in the terrifying scenes sweeping North Africa. Travel agents unwilling to risk sending tourists to a potential war-zone have pulled out of region.
And their cautiousness has been proven right, as recent violent demonstrations against military rule have shown.
At least 40 people have been killed in fierce clashes in the past week alone as protesters have demanded the resignation of the army commanders. Egypt’s military ruler warned of ‘extremely grave’ consequences if the turbulent nation did not pull through its current crisis.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said: ‘We will not allow troublemakers to meddle in the elections. Egypt is at a crossroads – either we succeed politically, economically and socially or the consequences will be extremely grave and we will not allow that.
'None of this would have happened if there were no foreign hands. We will not allow a small minority of people who don’t understand to harm Egypt’s stability.’
Protesters, who have once again camped out in Tahrir Square, said that they had come under fire from a police sniper.
The violence has proved how fragile the region is. Even after elections in the coming weeks, Islamic parties are expected to take control.
The elections are likely to be dominated by the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood. Analysts think they could win roughly a third of votes, likely to be far greater than the hundreds of small parties who will each get only a fraction of the vote.
The tourism industry has also so far been one of the main losers since violence began in the country, which saw the former president Hosni Mubarak ousted.
It is estimated that the unrest has cost the Egyptian economy some $310million a day, or at least $30 billion over the course of the year.

One of the indirect victims has been travel agents Thomas Cook. The firm saw a 70 per cent fall in its share price this week.

The group has suffered from the impact of the 'Arab spring', which has hit bookings to Tunisia and Egypt, destinations popular with France and Russia respectively, as well as UK holidaymakers.
Despite the drop in visitor numbers, the country's tourism board is trying to lure back holidaymakers with a string of advertising campaigns.
Egypt's promotional push portrays the region's potential as a safe and attractive holiday destinations.
‘Welcome to the country of peaceful revolution’ is the slogan that Egypt has settled on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067329/Egypt-protests-Tourists-deserting-pyramids-difference-year-makes-troubled-region.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

British tourists flocking to Egypt: Report

www.egypt.travel

London: While those from many western countries stay away, British tourists are reportedly flocking to Egypt despite the resurgence of civil unrest in which at least 14 protesters were shot dead by police in Cairo. 

Flights are still almost full as British holidaymakers take advantage of cheaper deals in Red Sea resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh in the wake of the civil unrest in places like Cairo, the 'Sunday Express' quoted tourism chiefs as saying. 

Egyptian authorities have announced incentives for charter operators in a bid to thwart the tourism crisis that has followed January's revolution, jeopardising an industry worth 11 per cent of the country's output. 

The Foreign Office has not warned against travel to Egypt but urges Britons to avoid Cairo where tension is mounting. 

"The situation is volatile and changing rapidly. There is a high risk of indiscriminate attacks on public places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers," a Foreign Office spokesman was quoted as saying. 

Yet resort destinations such as Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada, 300 miles away, are unaffected. 

Neil Garner, of the Monarch Travel Group, said: "Our figures for November show that Britons are still flocking to the Red Sea, though Europeans and Russians seem to be staying away. Flights to Sharm have been 97 per cent full." 

Khaled Rami, director of the Egyptian Tourist Office for the UK and Ireland, said most of the country was safe, adding: "If you look at Tahrir Square you would think all of Egypt is burning, but only in the way that anybody outside of the UK who saw footage of the August riots would think all the UK was burning."

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/british-tourists-flocking-to-egypt-report_744110.html