Egypt’s tourism industry facing global challenges: from the Arab spring to the pandemic

Abstract

In the article, the author examines the status of Egypt's tourism industry in 2011-2021. The critical importance of tourism is that this industry is one of the two main sources of foreign exchange in the country, along with income from the Suez Canal. A downturn in the tourism industry automatically threatens the existence of several million as jobs. The author identifies 3 critical points from which a sharp drop begins. The first point is the winter of 2010-2011. The unrest of the "Arab Spring" was accompanied by the leakage of large funds from the country, social chaos, and a decrease in the general level of security, which could not but frighten potential tourists. The next key point of the fall of the tourism industry in Egypt is the death of all passengers in the crash over the Sinai Peninsula of a Russian plane flying on the Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg route, and the subsequent complete ban on flights between Russia and Egypt. The third critical point was the beginning of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, officially announced by WHO on March 11, 2020, and, as a result, the almost complete closure of borders. Based on the analysis of statistical data from Egyptian and Western European sources, it is concluded that the indicators of the Egyptian tourism industry reflect both the trajectory of the country's political state and its almost complete dependence on the global health situation. It also concludes that the industry is extremely fragile, and the decision to partially reorient the industry towards domestic tourism, as well as receiving guests from neighboring Arab states, made in the period between the Arab Spring and the pandemic, was correct.