Hotel and tourism business owners in Egypt are facing a tough time as President Mohamed Mursi announced ban on inadequate swimwear and alcoholic drinks that are standard items on beach holidays for many foreign tourists.
Most of the people are in fear that the condition of the industry will never recover if the President confirms the rule.
"My business has shrunk by at least 70 percent in the past year," said Waleed, who asked Reuters to be identified by his first name only. "Egypt lives on tourism. I think Mursi wants to Islamise tourism in the long run, but for the next few years he won't do anything because people need to eat."
When al-Mehwar TV asked Mursi to clarify his position on bikinis and alcohol, he refused to give a clear answer but also said that tourism specialists must be consulted on all draft laws and described the issue as "very marginal, very superficial and affecting a very limited number of places."
The more liberal minded Egyptians are now in fear that these bans can attack on the civic and personal freedoms in the name of religion.
Industry professional revealed that the beach revenue is a major source of earning foreign exchange as it contributes up to 80 percent of the Egyptian tourism revenue.
Egypt's tourism industry employs almost 12 to 15 percent of the total work force in the country, which contributes to 11 percent of the gross domestic product and a quarter of foreign exchange earnings, said economist Samir Makary.
Many industries are directly and indirectly connected to the tourism industry as construction, food distribution and carpet-weaving.
But Tourism professionals in the country appear confident that Mursi will stay away from adding to their problems.
"They will allow tourism to operate normally until there are economic alternatives - and there never will be," said Karim Mohsen of the Egyptian Travel Agents Association to Reuters. "Ban bikinis and alcohol and live with the guilt of at least 4.5 million people out of work in Egypt... People will take to the streets."
A look at the official figures gives a clear scenario that the number of tourist visited Egypt in the first five months of this year was still down 26 per cent from 2010, at 4.4 million and the revenues were down 24 per cent from 2010 at $3.6 billion.
Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour told reporters, Tuesday, that he expects the country will have received more than 12 million tourists by the end of 2012, a 23 per cent rise over the previous year.
"I am confident that tourism will be business as usual in the coming years," said Ahmed Seddik, a Cairo-based travel consultant and tour guide in an interview with Reuters. "Tourism is one of the pillars of the Egyptian economy. Mursi will simply not take chances with it."
Some travel representative believes that the original threat is not the Islamist crackdown; it's the political instability that the country is suffering from.
"Short- to medium-term tourism investments are negatively affected by the general political instability, but long-term investments have halted completely," said Mohsen of the travel agents association.
A lot of big tourism and travel companies backed form Egypt because of its political conditions. US-based Crystal Cruises dropped its plans for any more investment as the sales of its cruises have fallen followed the stadium riots. The Pyramids of Giza were a staple of its cruises for years.
"There are a lot of marketing dollars spent promoting the original program," Mimi Weisband, Crystal Cruises Public Relations Vice President told Reuters. "Travel agents and our guests, from the U.S. and internationally, were telling us they were concerned and nervous about the safety of travel in Cairo."
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