Terror is taking a toll on the tourism industry in Egypt and other Muslim countries with British tourists choosing to head for the western Mediterranean and America instead.
According to the data published by the country’s statistics authority, the number of holidaymakers travelling the country of pyramids has halved in a year.
A total of 346,500 people visited Egypt in February, compared with 640,200 during the same month last year.
As many as 224 people were killed when a Russian airliner taking tourists home from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was blown up by Islamist extremists in November. Last week 66 people perished when an EgyptAir flight crashed into the Mediterranean. The plane carrying passengers from Paris to Cairo crashed mid-air which was suspected to be a terror attack. Such incidents are negatively impacting the tourism sector.
According to a report in The Times, Egypt attracted almost 15 million tourists in 2010 but unrest following the Arab Spring contributed to that number falling to fewer than 10 million by 2014.
Tourism has contributed significantly to the Egyptian economy, providing up to 14% of Egypt’s foreign currency revenue.
The reduction in tourist numbers has left resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh virtual ghost towns, making thousands jobless.
Terror has also taken a toll on Tunisia’s tourism industry. Thirty of the 38 people killed by an Islamist gunman on a Tunisian beach last June were British. The dead Britons were all holiday-makers staying in the popular resort of Port El Kantaoui, just north of Sousse.
Turkey’s tourism too has been impacted by terrorism in the last two years.
According to The Times report, Turkish government data show that numbers were down 6.4 per cent in January compared with a year earlier, but British tour operators say that bookings have slumped by as much as 50%. Tourism accounts for over 10% of Turkey’s economy and provides jobs for more than a million people.
Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of tour operator Thomas Cook, was quoted as saying in the report, “As we look ahead to our busiest period, Thomas Cook is trading well to destinations other than Turkey, with particularly strong bookings to Spain and the USA.”
