The huge Egyptian museum, once crowded every day by tens of thousands of excited tourists wielding flashlights, was now engulfed in a deep silence.
Only a few tour groups were inside the two-storey building designed by a French architect in 1902. There were less than two dozen visitors there, and each of them had enough time to admire the more than 120,000 pieces in the museum's collection, each of which took them back in time to the mysterious realm of ancient Egypt.
Anne and Mark Marwick, a young British couple, said of their first visit to the land of the pharaohs: "I think this is one of the best times to visit Egypt; a new spirit was born in Egypt as a result of the January 25 revolution, one that should be respected and allowed to grow, the gates of reform have been opened, something new is being born in this country. Something real."
Anne is happier than ever to visit Egypt now. "We were offered a really good package and cheap bargains everywhere, as shop owners in anything-but-normal times desperately try to sell their things. I think it's the Western world's role to support the Egyptian people now."
A few feet away stood Amr Salah, a tour guide explaining the Egyptian revolution to his tour group. "Egyptians have always made history: They made history thousands of years ago, and just a few kilometres away they made history again in Tahrir [Liberation] Square, which was the focal point of all events in the past two months."
Salah says his work has faced a huge blow in the past few months. "It is not only me, all the people who work in the tourism industry were hit by the latest upheaval, which ended up demolishing the peak season of winter."
Three months ago, Egypt witnessed one of the most remarkable uprisings in modern history, when millions of protesters from all socio-economic backgrounds swept streets for 18 days and succeeded in ousting the 82-year-old president Hosni Mubarak, shattering his three-decade rule.
Although the revolution was predominantly peaceful, it turned violent after several clashes between security forces and protesters, along with several incidents of looting and attacks on police stations and government buildings, which pushed many governments around the world to issue travel advisories warning their citizens against travelling to Egypt.
While several governments, including those of the United States, Japan, Australia and Iraq, arranged charter flights to evacuate their nationals, Cairo's international airport was choked with thousands of foreign workers seeking flights out of Egypt back to their homelands in a desperate attempt to flee the unrest, which led some travellers to stand in endless queues waiting for their turn to leave.
Maria Gomez, a Spanish student who arrived in Cairo days before the revolution for her internship, remembered staying three days at the airport waiting for her flight to nearby Jordan. "Our embassy made big efforts to evacuate us, as the situation was escalating and nobody knew where it would end," Maria told Weekend Review.
The US, which has about 50,000 citizens registered in its Cairo embassy, was among the first countries to evacuate its citizens. Washington declared that more than 2,600 people contacted officials requesting help in leaving. However, more than 1,200 left the country on nine flights headed for Larnaca in Cyprus, Istanbul and Athens, according to the State Department.
On the other hand, countries such as Britain, Germany and France, which send thousands of tourists to Egypt each year, issued advisories against travelling to Egypt's main cities of protests, such as Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, saying there was no point evacuating tourists from distant parts such as Red Sea resorts, Luxor and Aswan.
Although there is no exact number of the foreigners who fled Egypt in the last week of January, according to CAPMAS, the number reached 210,000. However, in his brief statements as vice-president, Omar Sulaiman stressed that about one million tourists fled Egypt, leading to a $1-billion (Dh3.67-billion) fall in tourism revenues and cancellations.
The mass exodus had a devastating impact on the tourism industry, which is regarded as one of the top three revenue earners for the economy. The Tourism Authority employs about 3.5 million people, second only to agriculture.
Dr Nasser Mekaway, a professor of Pharaonic History, said that "tourists generally considered Egypt a safe and stable place to stay in, but the unexpected vanishing of the police from the streets during the revolution had left a security vacuum, which led to some lootings and thefts of artefacts from archaeological sites such as the Egyptian museums, giving a sense of insecurity to people".
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Egypt is one of the top 25 tourism destinations in the world, attracting one per cent of the tourists and visitors worldwide, with the country witnessing a boom especially in the past few years. Last year alone, Egypt welcomed 14.7 million visitors, who generated $13.7 billion in revenue.
However, Egyptian officials expressed optimism with present rates, which rose gradually as foreign countries lifted bans on travel to Egypt and more companies organised special packages to Egypt.
Sayed Mahgoub, the 47-year-old owner of a souvenir shop in the major bazaar of Khan Al Khalili, expressed his gloom at the weak selling mechanism, but said he believes it is all for the sake of freedom and a new democratic era.
"Getting rid of a dictatorship and gaining your rights back have a price, a very expensive one. But we will pass through this phase like we have done so many times before — Egypt has always survived hard times," he said.
In a conference held by the Tourism Promotion Authority in Cairo, the newly appointed tourism minister Mounir Fakhri Abdul Noor said he expected the tourism sector to recover 65 per cent of its activity by the summer. "We hold high hopes from Gulf areas, as they were the least affected by the surrounding events, since Libya, which was the No 1 source of Arab tourism in Egypt, was dreadfully affected by its problems," Abdul Noor said.
Hesham Zazou told Weekend Review that the Ministry of Tourism is ready this year with many campaigns to reach out to new prospects. "We will have huge promotional appearances at the Dubai Tourism Exhibition in May," Zazou said, adding that Russian authorities have agreed to lift the travel ban on Egypt, which will help improve the return rates. Russia tops the list of countries sending tourists to Egypt, with up to 2.8 million visitors every year.
Martin Havner, director of Austria's ATA, one of the largest European companies specialising in organising tours to Egypt, said that "none of the tourists who were visiting Egypt during the time of the revolution had been subjected to any kind of danger".
He stressed that all the tourists who spent their holidays on the shores of the Red Sea in Hurghada or Sharm El Shaikh insisted on continuing their journey and refused all offers to return to Austria earlier.
Mohammad Rafat, an agent at an Egypt tour company, said that despite all the publicity Egypt is gaining in its transitional period, it is not reflected yet on the ground. "Little business is coming to Sharm El Shaikh, Hurghada and Taba, we get fewer orders and inquiries now, compared to this period last year. Even the hotel occupancy has decreased by 64.7 per cent after the January 25 revolution, according to statistics released by the tourism ministry," Rafat said.
At the same time, both local and official efforts are being exerted to boost tourism, as several archaeological sites and tourist attractions will be opened in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Rashid and Taba.
Sites that will be reopened, or opened for the first time, include the Hanging Church in Cairo (which recently underwent restoration) and the New Kingdom cemetery at Saqqara, which contains the tombs of Maya and Horemheb. Also to be opened for the first time are the new Suez National Museum and the Crocodile Museum in Kom Ombo.
In another move, tourism minister Abdul Noor announced an initiative to bring together the world's most famous actors, actresses and media personalities, in an attempt to revive and boost tourism. Among them is a project to encourage the multi-award-winning programme, The Oprah Show, to host a live show from Tahrir Square.
Young Egyptian activists have organised many events. Hundreds of tourism initiatives have been set up to attract internal tourism and foreign tourists; one of them was an initiative on Facebook to hold events near the pyramids, gathering thousands of young people wearing pharaonic costumes and raising welcome banners in all languages.
"The whole world views Egypt as a must-see destination for its history and natural landscapes but now there is a new element," said Mohammad Youssry, one of the participants in this event. He stressed that there is now another reason to visit Egypt and see "the place where it has all happened".
"I have been to Egypt ten times in the past 30 years. This time I was saddened to see all those beautiful tourist sites — from the wonderful golden beaches to the Saqqara pyramids, which are usually crowded by thousands of sunburnt visitors — standing empty. It was the same in all the other sites, including the Karnak Temple and the world-famous Valley of the Kings," said Anika van de Laar, who is visiting Egypt with her grandchildren.
She said everyone at first was against her decision but she stressed that they have to witness this exciting moment in Egypt's history and be part of the whole process.
"There never has been a better or a safer time to visit Egypt. Welcome to a new era of freedom. You can see the change in people, they are filled with hope," she said.
Many people in Egypt share President Barack Obama's concerns and hopes for Egypt's future, as they believe that Mubarak's stepping down does not mark the end of the country's transition but only the beginning, with many questions still remaining unanswered.
Other sectors affected
Along with the tourism industry, the revolution has also slowed other sectors in Egypt. Jobs have been lost, foreign investment has dried up and inflation has increased. The stock exchange opened only recently after a two-month shutdown.
The government reported that food prices have skyrocketed 48 per cent in a nation that is already the world's largest importer of wheat. Lines form in neighbourhoods when trucks arrive with canisters of cooking fuel. All this has added stress to an economy where 22 per cent of people live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures.
A blow to the economy
Sa'ad Ahmad has a lot of time on his hands these days. Usually at this time of year, hordes of tourists swarm his souvenir shop. Many others like to visit Egypt's mightiest pyramid, snapping up postcards, ornamental papyrus and enough statuettes of king Tutankhamun to create a kitschy necropolis back home. But now this ancient kingdom of tombs resembles a ghost town.
"I'm losing a lot of money," said Ahmad, 63, a retiree who sold property near his home in the province of Qena five years ago to buy one of the souvenir shops near the Great Pyramid of Cheops on Cairo's outskirts.
Merchants who cater to tourists say the post-revolutionary drop in business has been much more severe than the slowdown after gunmen killed a group of tourists in Luxor in 1997. Between January 25 and February 1, at least one million tourists cut their visits short or chose not to come at all, said Egypt's new minister of tourism, Mounir Fakhri Abdul Noor, in an interview.
Mohammad Al Masri, a businessman and former president of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, said most Egyptians in the business community have been supportive of the revolution. But some also long for the return of stability. "This is the cost of freedom, so, OK, we expect this," he said. "But only for a certain time."
Although calm has partially returned, some Egyptians remain focused on the poor economy, particularly in the cluster of shops near the Pyramids of Giza that local Egyptians call "tourist town".
Ahmad said business has been so slow that he laid off his multilingual sales staff for a month. That has left him and his young grandson to mind the store, and neither speaks English, Russian or any other foreign language.
A block away, Ebrahim Fikri, 41, said the revolution has killed his business too. He runs a shop selling aromatic essences, which used to draw as many as 20 people a day before the revolution. These days, he feels happy to get even two people browsing the shelves containing the stoppered vials filled with a rainbow of aromatic liquids — mint, amber or musk — distilled from gazelle kidneys. "The economy is very bad," he said.
-The Washington Post
Raghda El Halawany is an independent writer based in Cairo.
