The Effect of Terrorist Attacks on Tourism in Egypt (1928-2018)

Abstract

Egypt is one of the most important tourist countries in the world, which is characterized by many tourist attractions. The history of tourism in Egypt dates back to the ancient Egyptians, and has continued as a desirable destination of the world over the past centuries. However, tourism in Egypt has been affected recently by the political situation and terrorist attack that led to the lack of safety, which led to the retreat of tourist delegations to Egypt. (ONGT, 2017) There is a correlation between security and tourism. Tourism flourishes as much as the country enjoys security stability. Egypt because of the events that followed the revolution of 25th January and the political movement that led to violence and security chaos that had a negative effect on the decline of tourism. Many countries of the world ban its citizen to travel to Egyptian territory until the stability maintain again. (El-Asmaey, 2015) Security is the basic foundation of all activities therefore without security there is no development, which means there is no tourism without security because the tourist will want to feel safe in the country they will visit, and security and stability are the engines for the success of tourism. (Hall, et al, 2003) The return of security to Egypt will work to develop tourism and thus revive the Egyptian economy, the Egyptian government is making efforts to restore tourism to what it was before, because the workers in this field have suffered since the January revolution where the work of tourism has been stopped and many of these institutions have been closed due to difficult economic conditions. (Khodair, 2016) The research paper will discuss how terrorist attacks have affected the Egyptian society and development; we will discuss how tourism sector was before the revolution and how it was affected by the security chaos and terrorist incidents witnessed by the country. At the end of the research we will find a solution to resolve this crisis as the government must change its policy and carry out effective reforms by making people more aware of the political and security situation and how to work beyond this period and to return to the path of development.