Egyptian Tourism Industry and Terrorism Effects Proposal

Introduction

Egypt is a country mainly famous for ancient pyramids and sphinx. The country’s tourism industry contributes a substantial amount to its GDP. Lately, the nation has been experiencing mounting catastrophes, security lapses and the escalating cost of living. On top of all these factors, there is the upheaval in its tourism industry that the nation is facing. It is estimated that on an annual basis, the tourism industry of Egypt offers almost three million employment opportunities. Twenty per cent of the nation’s foreign currency is earned from this industry. Another fact is that not less than 70 production units within the nation benefit from it. In the event of downfall in the magnitude of tourists, the foreign currency inflow has been substantially hampered that has cast a great impact on the Egyptian pound (Fahim 2013).

As a result of the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak (October 14, 1981, to February 11, 2011), there was a massive turmoil within the nation. As a result, the tourism industry plunged to an all-time low show. It is understood that the nation is starting to recuperate. Still, the foreign currency inflow is very less since most of the present tourists go for the beaches instead of visiting the cultural sites (that earn more foreign currency). The hospitality sector (hotels) is the most affected; figures show that the occupancy in hotels has dropped by 15% (Fahim 2013).

Research rationale

Excellence in the hospitality business requires unhindered and excellent service to customers as per the requisite standards. In the ensuing years, this particular necessity will augment to become a challenging and sustaining factor at a global level. Various tools have been designed for this purpose that hotel managers and other staff members can use to perform better and impress their customers. For the customer (hotel guest) the main important factors are good and clean room, nice and tasty food, a great ambience, and above all, excellent response from the staff (Kapiki 2012). It is ironical to note that recent acts of violence in Egypt have changed the perspective of hospitality management. Now, the customers would expect fool-proof security for themselves from the hotel that they are staying. The hotels might have to employ extra staff and purchase new security devices for this purpose. This will increase their costs and decrease their profit margins.

When terrorist activities are focussed on the tourism industry of a country (that is dependent on tourism to a great extent) the aftermath can be devastating for that country’s financial stability (Sönmez, Apostolopoulos & Tarlow 1999). Tourists have their free will to choose any destination for spending their holidays. As is a normal expectation, all tourists want a hassle-free and tension-free vacation. Reports of any disturbances or risks at the destination country might force the tourists to change their plans and opt for a peaceful destination.

As is understood, the Egyptian tourism industry was at its peak during the reign of President Mubarak. But due to the unrest and the ensuing insurgency, the nation received a major setback in the form of declining tourists. Terrorist activities were carried out throughout the nation, specifically in the capital city of Cairo – which by far was the main attraction for the visiting tourists. Ironically, the terrorist activities were targeted at the tourists to flaccid the nation’s economic stability. Since the tourism industry had a significant contribution to the GDP of the country, a decline in tourists resulted in all over the economic crisis. The layman was the most affected because the prices of commodities rose as never before. The hospitality sector that depended mainly on the tourist inflow was also affected badly.

Considering all such factors, it becomes imperative to research the effects that terror attacks have had on the nation’s tourism industry. According to Sharpley (1999), it is not practical for any nation to disregard tourism. During the twentieth century, tourism has staged a performance that can be termed as the world’s largest income generator.

Aims and objectives

Aim

The primary aim of this research is to establish the fact that terrorist activities in a country could hamper the tourism prospects and thereby, incur a deficit in the foreign currency. The research is aimed at Egypt, a country situated in the northeastern part of the African continent.

Objectives

1. To critically examine the previous researches done on the subject.
2. To ascertain the extent to which the terrorists are responsible for the current dilemma.
3. To establish a link between the religion, and the hospitality (here, tourism) sector.
4. To figure out the actual impact on the economic scenario of Egypt due to the attacks on tourists.

Literature review

According to Sönmez (1998), human beings tend to show varied conducts on hearing the news of any terrorist activities being carried out at their holiday destination. Such conducts include change of destination from the terrorism affected nation to a safer destination and also to avoid the nearby nations. Tourists of different countries interpret the threats on different levels like tourists from the United States are very particular about the security system at their holiday destination, and they take even the slightest risk as a major threat to their safety.

The abrupt impact of an intimidation act is prone to be the abandonment of the tour to the area where the act occurred. Even those who are not visiting the country but just have a change of flights also wish to take another route. The further loss might be in the shape of diminishing hotel bookings. It is understood that the magnitude of the terrorist activities or the length of such events is uncertain. But despite this, the first impact that is seen decreases in the number of visitors. The consequences (of such events) that will follow by default is that for tourists who are unhindered in their decision there may have some better deals like economic fight tickets, cheaper hotel rooms, and lesser crowd at tourist spots (Azim 2010).

It is very much humane to avoid areas (while on vacation) where there are possible hazards, and assurance of protection is missing. Such perceptions outweigh the urge to visit that place. Also, in case a tourist has the sensation of being unsafe and is threatened by the circumstances, it is very much possible that he/she might avoid the location in future (Dimanche & Lepetic 1999).

The risk-averse tourists have the psychology of buying packaged tours and stay for lesser number of days at foreign locales and that too at a lesser number of destinations. Results of research done by Tversky & Shafir (1992) depict that certain customers take a lot of time in deciding on complex matters.

Case study: Egypt

The terrorists in Egypt have tried their best to deprive the nation of benefits of its money-spinning tourism industry. Tourists who have visited Egypt before the turmoil have nothing but praises for the country’s heritage (historical sites), the people and their culture. Their trips have been adventurous, exquisite, unusual, and colourful. It was very unfortunate that such incidents happened in this great nation. It deprived the world of visiting historical places of great importance and even enjoying the beautiful beaches and the grandeur of river Nile.

It has been almost two years when President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from the Presidential post. Still, even today, Cairo’s Tahrir Square is witness to the demonstrations targeted at the current President, Mohamed Morsi. The demonstrators hold the government responsible for the declining economic state of the nation (NBC 2013).

Egypt is an Islamic nation. Does it mean that the extremists are conducting the attacks based on religion? Islam does not preach to oppose tourism fundamentally. In any case, the way the government of Egypt has carried out its plans of tourism development has given rise to the demonstrations and killings by the Muslim activist outfits. A point to ponder is that are the foreign tourists the main targets of the terrorists? If not, what do the terrorists want to prove or achieve? And if yes, what is the reason behind it? If we consider the situation from a bigger perspective, we will come to an understanding that not only the tourism industry or the government but even the tourists themselves are responsible for this aggression. Vital to the contention is that savagery is a response to flighty tourism advancement. Bracing down on the Muslim outfits can be termed as damage control instead of finding a way out of the critical dilemma. Terrorism in the nation is a pointer of the issue instead of being an issue in its particular limit (Aziz 1995).

During the past couple of years, starting in 1992, there have been numerous attacks on the tourists in Egypt. Some of the incidents are enlisted below:

• October 1992: A ship with 140 Germans was fired at. Luckily, no tourist was injured or killed. Only three Egyptian crew members were injured.
• October 1992: An attack on a tourist bus kills a British woman – she was the first to be the victim of the insurgency.
• October 1994: A British national dies as a result of an attack on the bus in which he was travelling.
• April 2005: A suicide bomber explodes a bomb in the main market area in Cairo that resulted in the death of an American, French and another female.
• July 2005: A car bomb explodes at a famous resort, after which the official deaths were announced to be 64 whereas as per the hospital records, the deaths totalled 88 (Al-Jazeerah 2008).

There are several other instances where innocent tourists – and locals – were sent to their heavenly abodes by acts of terrorism. The then government tried to resolve the issue by putting great efforts. As usual, the blame game started, and the blame was put on external forces. Quoting the then President, Salaheddin (1997) writes that the terrorists had external links and received monetary help from some foreign source. Ironically, he was not specific on the name of the foreign source.

References

Al-Jazeerah 2008, Timeline: Tourist attacks in Egypt. Web.

Azim, T 2010, ‘The relationship between the perception of risk and the decision making process of travel of French tourists: The case of Egypt’, Tourismos: An international multidisciplinary journal of tourism, vol. 5. no. 2, pp. 29-47.

Aziz, H 1995, ‘Understanding attacks on tourists in Egypt’, Tourism Management, vol. 16. No. 2, pp. 91-95.

Dimanche, F & Lepetic, A 1999, ‘New Orleans Tourism and Crime: A Case Study’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 38. no. 1, pp. 19-23.

Fahim, K 2013, Egyptians struggle as wary tourists stay away. Web.

Kapiki, S 2012, ‘Quality management in tourism and hospitality: An exploratory study among tourism stakeholders’, International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, vol. 2. No. 2, pp. 53-61.

NBC 2013, Egypt branded more dangerous for tourists than Yemen. Web.

Salaheddin, E 1997, Islamic radicals claim responsibility in Egypt. Web.

Sharpley, R 1999, Tourism, tourists and society – 2^nd edition. ELM Publications, England.

Sönmez, S 1998, ‘Tourism, terrorism, and political instability’, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 25. no. 2, pp. 416-456.

Sönmez, S, Apostolopoulos, Y & Tarlow, P 1999, ‘Tourism in Crisis: Managing the Effects of Terrorism’, Journal of Travel Research, vol. 38. no. 1, pp. 13-18.

Tversky, A & Shafir, E 1992, ‘Choice under conflict: The dynamics of deferred decision’, Psychological Science, vol. 3. no. 6, pp. 358-361.