Wednesday, July 10, 2013

HOW POLITICAL CRISES AFFECTS TOURISM IN EGYPT



The protest that is seen in Egypt is a rise of democratic issues of the last election in Egypt. This mass protest led to hundreds of thousands of egytians on the street demanding the step down of President Mohammed Morsi. The protest went ahead and storm muslim brotherhood from which its believed that the president Morsi hails hence leading to the country border crossing to gaza strip the north mount Sinai closed indefinitely. The political crisis in Egypt has prompted an upsurge of violence in the Sinai Peninsula, with various jihadist militias - made up, experts believe, of local Bedouin with a sprinkling of foreign fighters -attacking Egyptian army road-blocks and other government positions.

The political crises being experienced has led to economic crises in Egypt. Tourism sector is one of the major economic boster in Egypt and based on the ongoing protest it has lead to resignation of tourist minister Hisham Zazou and some reshuffle by the military commander Hazem El-Beblawi, a liberal economist who was finance minister and deputy prime minister, will serve as the interim prime minister; Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomat, will serve as interim vice president, it said.

The biggest problem is that we take forever to develop democratic recipe which can stand the test of time. This has made the Egyptians to think that a coup is the only way to achieve democracy. Political scientist thin that whats going on in Egypt is a revolution. Arguing that when tyrant falls, anarchy rules just the same way it happen to French revolution. And the revolution always eats its own children. While protests remain at the center of attention, as jets fly over Liberation Square and escaped prisoners instill fear in the public, the political crisis could turn into a humanitarian one if the current economic paralysis continues Economic downturn and recession, fluctuating exchange rates, loss of market confidence and withdrawal of investment funds can all create a tourism crisis. Crises generated within the industry can also be analyzed under the headings of economic, sociocultural and environmental when tourism has negative impacts in these fields (Henderson, 2006).The external and internal threats of the economic crisis to the tourism industry are;

1.      further External threats: recession; currency fluctuations; and taxation.

2.      Internal threats: rising costs; falling revenues; unprofitability (Sian et al., 2009).Crises occur at all levels of tourism operations with varying degrees of severity, from much publicized environmental, economic and political disaster


Khaled M. Hanafy, an economic adviser to the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Egypt, the umbrella group representing all the chambers in the country (or some four million businesses), said that while they had no figure for the economy’s losses, the cost of the disruptions had reached the billions of dollars.
Ms. Youssef said the flights taking tourists out of the country were carrying off badly needed tourist money with them as well. “Egypt is highly dependent on tourism,” she said. Foreign direct investment would probably decline too, she said, as Egypt’s reputation for stability degenerated .






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