Is It Safe for Tourists to Travel to Egypt Now?

[George Habib]

 

Since medieval times, Egypt has always been a favorite destination for tourists from all over the world. The good weather, the many beaches of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and the diversity of monuments that the land of the pharos hosts always attracted travelers from different regions to come and visit Egypt.

 

 

However, with all the political events that started with the people's revolution against the government on the 25th of January 2011, and with many countries placing warnings to travelers who want to visit Egypt in this period like the United States of America and Canada, many questions jump in the head of a tourist before thinking of coming to Egypt. The most important question is "is it safe to visit Egypt now?" and The answer to this question is "Yes" for many different reasons

 

The tourism business in Egypt has proved that it was able to be strong enough to pass through a number of challenges in the past few decades. The travel companies, with the help of the Egyptian people and the Egyptian government, were always able to get through all of these obstacles.

 

The first challenge was the incident that took place in Luxor in 1997 when a group of criminals attacked a number of tourists in the Hatshepsut temple in the West Bank. This accident affected the tourism business in Sothern Egypt for years. However, the Egyptian government, by increasing the security masseurs in the region and adding security gates at the entrance of every monument in Luxor and Aswan, was able to attract tourists again to come to Egypt. The Egyptian people as well played a major role in making their country regain its position in the international tourism business.

 

The second hard challenge that the travel business in Egypt had to face was the bombing that took place in Sharm El Sheikh in 2005. However, the whole image and environment in Sharm El Sheikh after this incident was totally different from what happened in Luxor as tourists coming to Egypt knew that these accidents happen everywhere in the world and not only in Egypt.

 

Although the number of tourists coming to Egypt and to Sharm El Sheikh in particular decreased, a large number of tourists, especially from Russia, the United States, and England, didn't cancel their reservations, went to Egypt, and enjoyed their trip very much.

 

I had the chance to visit Sharm El Sheikh two weeks after the bombing and the beaches, restaurants, hotels, and nightspots were full of tourists. " I feel secure in Sharm El Sheikh more than my own country", one tourist said at the time.

 

Moreover, things are getting calmer and calmer in Egypt as time passes by. Especially after the Egyptian former president, Hosny Mubarak, and his sons, Gamal and Alaa, as well as many other corrupted high officials, were put in jail and are they awaiting their trials now.

 

The Egyptian people now feel that their revolution have achieved its goals and the streets in Cairo and all the other cities around Egypt are gradually getting back to normal.

 

The Egyptian police forces that withdrew from the streets in the beginning of the revolution on the 28th of January are now going back to their position in the streets of Egypt. The new Egyptian minster of interior affairs, Mr. Mansour Al Esewy, declared that all the policemen and police officers are already back in their positions everywhere in Egypt. Even the curfew that was set during the last two months has been informally cancelled now and you see people in the streets till the dawn.

 

 

Furthermore, all the museums, ancient monuments, archeological sites have been reopened again and they are operating with normal working hours. Even the Egyptian Museum of antiquities, which is located in the middle of the Tahrir square where the Egyptian revolution factually took place was reopened in March and the visitors were welcomed by flowers when they enter the museum.

 

 

On the other hand, Franco Frattini, The Italian Minster of foreign affairs noted that Egypt is getting more and more stable and encouraged the Italians to visit Egypt in large numbers as they used to do. This is the case with many other European countries that their governments have canceled the warnings concerning traveling to Egypt.

 

All of these factors encouraged tourists from different European countries to visit Egypt In the previous period. the airports of Luxor, Sharm El Sheikh, and Hurghada have received hundreds of tourists in the end of March and in the beginning of April

 

Another important advantage for travelers to visit Egypt now is to enjoy the wonderful weather in cities like Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea and Luxor and Aswan in the South of Egypt. The weather in these cities is still not very hot in the morning and wonderful in the afternoon and at night. In a month or two, the weather would be too hot for travelers to enjoy their stay in these major Egyptian cities.

 

Travelers, should as well, take advantage of the great deals and low price packages that the Egyptian tourism companies, hotels, shops, and restaurants are offering now. A tourist can save up to 30% if he visits Egypt now and he will still enjoy himself and feel secured in the land of the Nile.

 

Egypt is and will always be a safe country to visit. Tourist from all over the world will always feel secured in Egypt more than any other country in Europe or in America.

 

Usually activities and stops in any city in Europe would close up at 9 or 10 at night. This is not the case for Egypt. One can enjoy himself and have a lot of activities to do until late at night or even until sunrise. A lot of people like to call Cairo, the city that never sleeps.

 

The Egyptian people have always been known for their wonderful hospitality and generosity with tourists. "We are always friendly with foreigners and they are the very important to us, we would defend them with our own lives. They are our guests and we consider our guest as a family member", a taxi driver said in an interview in the Egyptian Television.