The Rise and Fall of Egyptian Tourism

I struggled with how to title this post. Certainly Egypt has become a destination that many in the West avoid, and i know from working with clients through my award booking service that despite excellent business class award availability on the non-stop New York JFK – Cairo EgyptAir flight that most folks aren’t keen to connect in Cairo these days.

So certainly the parts of Egypt dependent on tourist dollars are suffering. Still, this seems like a very poor coping mechanism:

An Egyptian newspaper reported that a young man from the city of Luxor in the south cut off his penis and buried in a graveyard after suffering depression as a result of the decline in tourism since the outbreak of popular protests that led to the removal of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.

I wonder if the Maldives government’s plan to shut down spas, including at the resorts would have similar unintended consequences?

(HT: Alan H.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

Comments are closed.