FREE ESSAY ON TOURIMS IN EGYPT

TOURIMS IN EGYPT

David 
Middle East
Prof. Schad
20 November 2000
Tourism in Egypt
Egypt is a country that is extremely rich in its historical background. With such a
background it is easy to see why tourism is a big component of its gross national
product. The well being of the Egyptian economy is highly dependent on a good year of
tourism. The whole business of tourism has relied on the ancient monuments and relics of
the past, but in recent years there has been a huge effort to create more modern tourist
attractions like resorts and golf courses. The combinations of the old and new
attractions comprise the biggest sector of the Egyptian economy.
For the most part it is said that Egypt consists basically of six different tourist
sites. Three of the sites; Alexandria, Hurghada, and Sharm El Sheikh are coastal
hotspots. They consist of many of the newer resorts offering many activities to its
guests like water sports, casinos, nightclubs, and golf courses. These three sites would
be considered the more modern sites. The other three sites; Aswan, Cairo, and Luxor are
the more historical tourist sites. Although Aswan doesn't hold that many historical
monuments, the other two, Cairo and Luxor, are overflowing with them. These sites are
highly geared towards the tourist and offer a wide variety of transportation and guided
tours (Egypt Ministry).
Within a few of these sites are contained some of the most awe inspiring and ancient
monuments known to man. Now when you first hear the word Egypt, you directly focus your
attention to the Great Pyramids of Giza. It is easily one of Egypt's most visited
monuments and one of the world's largest tourist attractions. The ancient Greeks
considered the pyramids to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Another one of the
great monuments to come out of ancient Egyptian society is the Sphinx. One of the
greatest things about the Sphinx is that the purpose of it is still unknown and highly
debated on. The Sphinx is known in Arabic as Abu El Hol, which means "Father of Terror".
The actual name of Sphinx was given by the Greeks, who believed it was a representation
of the mythical winged monster with a woman's head and lion's body who proposed a riddle
to the Thebans and killed all who could not get the correct answer (Tourism and
Entertainment).
Many of the artifacts found near or in these ancient Egyptian monuments are now stored in
the Egyptian Museum. The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities was built in 1858 right in the
middle of Cairo at Al Tahrir Square. The museum itself houses more then 100,000 of
Egypt's relics and antiques from virtually every period of its history. The exhibits are
arranged chronologically starting with the Old Kingdom and going all the way up to the
Roman Empire. "If you spend one minute at each exhibit, it will take you nine months to
see everything"(Tourism and Entertainment). You can just imagine the shear size of this
massive building just by the last statement (Tourism and Entertainment). 
The population of the country of Egypt is roughly 60 million people. Now just imagine how
important the tourism sector is to the population when 10 million people have jobs
directly or indirectly related to it. The reason for this high number is that a job in
the tourism field is very profitable when compared to other jobs offered in the Egyptian
economy. This is easy to see when you find out that the average visiting businessperson
spends about $240.00 a day. Tourism is one of the major sources of hard currency; which
is an effective factor in economic and social development. It took over Egypt's main
source of foreign exchange from oil in 1988 and has been on top ever since. In 1990, the
gross domestic product reached 24 billion, of which 10% of that was a product of tourism.
With the average number of tourists each year around 4.3 million spending about 2.5
billion annually, it's easy to see why the percentage is so high (Zohery). 
There are a few problems that Egypt is facing that are extremely detrimental to its
tourism sector. One of the problems is that many of Egypt's ancient monuments are being
adversely affected by the high amount of tourist traffic to the area. Affects of this
have already been seen. In February of 1988, a 500-pound chunk of limestone fell off of
the Sphinx. What used to be true was that these great historical monuments had been
protected for centuries by huge drifts of sand that have long since been cleared away to
make more room for the tourists. What is happening as a result of this high traffic is
all the evaporation that occurs. This leaves salt deposits in the pyramid, which wears
away the stone, and this also happens on the walls where the art on the monuments are
wearing away. Until recently, traffic was allowed extremely close to the monuments. What
this did was to make small rumbles in the ground, which over time has started cracks in
many of the monuments. Another problem Egypt has is its high pollution. All the smog from
the cars and factories are producing acid rain that is falling on the monuments mostly
made of limestone and wearing them down. The Egyptian government needs to take some
precautionary action to counteract or at least soften the blow of many of these
environmental factors. The country itself boasts about 10,000 antique sites that are
irreplaceable. The future of tourism depends on protecting these sites (TED).
Another detriment to the tourism sector of the economy is its vulnerability to regional
conflicts and terrorism. One such occurrence was during and right after the Gulf War, in
1991. The tourist sector reached an all time low with 10 million employees affected with
a 20% unemployment rate. Another incident, this one of terrorism, occurred in 1997 when
there was a massacre of 30 foreign tourists in Luxor. Total visitors to the country the
following year fell 13%. Only in recent months have the number of tourists begun to reach
the amounts it used to be (TED).
While the Egyptian government is making an attempt to develop more tourist attractions to
the country, they need to preserve the ones that they already have. Only with a
combination of both the old and the new will the Egyptian tourism sector continue to
thrive. 
Bibliography
Works Cited
Egyptian Ministry of Tourism Home Page. 29 Sept. 1999. Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. 5
Nov. 2000. http://www.touregyp.net
Egypt's Tourism Net Home Page. 7 Mar. 1995. Egypt's Tourism Net. 1 Nov. 2000.
http://www.tourism.egnet.net
Zohery, Ali. Home Page. 17 Dec. 1998. 1 Nov. 2000. http://www.zohery.com/newsletter.htm