Tourist industry harmed by recent attacks

Описание: (30 Dec 2016) LEAD IN:
Egyptian tourism has taken a hit since the 2011.
But Luxor tourism industry workers say they are hopeful that business will improve in the coming winter season.

STORY LINE:
Once this papyrus shop in Luxor would have been bustling with tourists at this time of year, eager to take home some depictions of Egyptian heritage to hang on their walls.
Winter is typically the busiest time of the year for shops in the Southern Egyptian town.
But on this December day, the shop is empty.
Periods of unrest and violence, which included the downing of a Russian aeroplane that took off from the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh last year, have kept crowds of tourists away.
Egypt's aviation industry was further shaken by the crash into the Mediterranean of an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo in May after a fire was reported on board, killing all 66 people on board.
Manager Saied Maghrabi says it's been a tough five years since the country's 2011 popular uprising, which removed President Hosni Mubarak from power.
He's glad that political change took place, but says that the ensuing unrest has been very difficult for those working in the tourism industry.
He has had to opt to pay employees less rather than fire them.
"People working in the tourism industry, we are the ones who have been harmed the most in the period following the revolution. But God willing, the blessings are still coming and things will get better for Egypt. We are, right now - and I'm being a bit optimistic - we are working at 25 percent of what we were before the revolution," Maghrabi says.
This year's winter season is clouded with an extra tinge of tragedy. On Sunday, a suicide bombing struck a Coptic church in central Cairo, killing 25 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack was among the deadliest in recent memory against Egypt's Coptic minority, which makes up around 10 percent of the population in Egypt and was largely supportive of the military overthrow of Morsi in 2013.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi led the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, a senior figure in the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Since then, militants have carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting the security forces, while the government has waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent.
But this hasn't deterred some intrepid tourists.
Yangci Liu, 23, a Chinese university student visiting Luxor with a tour group, said she feels safe on her trip despite recent headlines.
"It's completely different from like the news, and all the bombs. So I think it's safe here, yeah," she says.
Faraj Mahmoud Mohamed Osman, owner of the El Hussein Restaurant, was busy finishing up with a lunch crowd of tourists. He says that this week's events were troubling, but he doesn't think it's a problem only experienced by Egypt.
"These attacks could have been anywhere in the world, in America, in England, in France, in Belgium, in any place," he says.
Luxor has been targeted before. In 1997, militant gunmen killed 62 people at the Deir al-Bahiri archaeological site.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...