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Tourism After Terror: What Happens Next?
Smarter TravelI’ve been thinking a lot about the people I met in Egypt.
When I visited the country two years ago, I met many who had pinned their career hopes and livelihoods on the tourism sector. The guides I hired had spent years going to special industry schools and perfecting their English. They all told me that although Egypt was getting fewer visitors, they were optimistic (especially following the 2014 election) that things would turn around. Tourists, they presumed, could not stay away from the wonders of their country for very long.
These people couldn’t have foreseen the wave of terror attacks that would soon hit the country, nor the general increase in fear around the world. Egypt’s Ministry of Planning recently released a report that showed a 63.3 percent decline in tourism revenues between January and March 2016. Egypt’s Tourism Minister, Yehia Rashed, remains confident though, telling Reuters: “I am very hopeful, optimistic about the future of tourism into Egypt.”
It’s not just Egypt that’s been hit by sluggish tourism, either. Europe has suffered as well. Mark Okerstrom, chief financial officer at Expedia, told the New York Times that, following the Paris attacks, “growth in nightly hotel room bookings after fell to single digits from 20 percent. After the Brussels bombings, bookings went negative, and after Nice, bookings fell by double digits.” Okerstrom finished by saying, “We haven’t seen a bounceback … What we don’t know for certain is whether there’s an overall dampening impact to global travel, or to Europe specifically.”
When I visited the country two years ago, I met many who had pinned their career hopes and livelihoods on the tourism sector. The guides I hired had spent years going to special industry schools and perfecting their English. They all told me that although Egypt was getting fewer visitors, they were optimistic (especially following the 2014 election) that things would turn around. Tourists, they presumed, could not stay away from the wonders of their country for very long.
These people couldn’t have foreseen the wave of terror attacks that would soon hit the country, nor the general increase in fear around the world. Egypt’s Ministry of Planning recently released a report that showed a 63.3 percent decline in tourism revenues between January and March 2016. Egypt’s Tourism Minister, Yehia Rashed, remains confident though, telling Reuters: “I am very hopeful, optimistic about the future of tourism into Egypt.”
It’s not just Egypt that’s been hit by sluggish tourism, either. Europe has suffered as well. Mark Okerstrom, chief financial officer at Expedia, told the New York Times that, following the Paris attacks, “growth in nightly hotel room bookings after fell to single digits from 20 percent. After the Brussels bombings, bookings went negative, and after Nice, bookings fell by double digits.” Okerstrom finished by saying, “We haven’t seen a bounceback … What we don’t know for certain is whether there’s an overall dampening impact to global travel, or to Europe specifically.”
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