Booze and bikinis are welcome in Egypt! Egypt's tourism minister insists that Egypt is not so conservative when it comes to tourism.
Even though radical Islamic groups want things like wearing bikinis and drinking alcohol banned from the country, Hisham Zaazou, Egypt's tourism minister says the country is still open to visitors engaging in these activities, as the country is hoping to boost its tourism numbers by at least a fifth this year, Reuters reports.
Tourism is a major part of the Egyptian economy and it has taken a hard hit since the protests that lead to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The country has seen periodic rioting and instability due to this event, but Egypt wants to get tourism back to pre-protest levels.
According to Zaazou, the government has "optimistic goals" for tourism, so they're playing down the protests from radical Salafi Muslim groups who are against alcohol and women wearing swimsuits. Zaazou says to ignore these claims as the government has addressed their comments.
"Bikinis are welcome in Egypt and booze is still being served," Zaazou told a news conference during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters.
"We had talks with these Salafi groups and now they understand the importance of the tourism sector, but still you have some individuals that are not from the leadership saying these things," added the minister, an independent who is not a member of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.
President Mohamed Mursi's government, which is Islamist, tried to increase taxes on alcohol in December to discourage its use, but they backed down on the measure after it received heavy criticism from the tourism sector and liberals.
Tourism was doing very well before the uprising. The sector made up more than a tenth of the country's economic output. There were 14.7 million visitors to the country in 2010 which gave the country $12.5 billion, but only 9.8 million showed in 2011 and brought in $8.8 billion.
There was a slight improvement in 2012 as 11.5 million tourists visited the country and they made $10 billion. Zaazou has already seen improvement this year as three million people have visited in the first quarter, which is a 14.6 percent increase from last year's first quarter.
In the long run, Egypt hopes to have 30 million tourists visiting by 2022 as this would raise revenues to $25 billion. To get to this goal, tourism is a big priority.
One way the country is trying to boost tourism is by trying to make tourists feel safer. They have installed camera in major resorts which show live video on the Egyptain tourism ministry's website.
"We want to show people that Egypt is safe, and the best way to show this is by live streaming. The next step will be to have these images shown on big screens in public squares in Paris or New York."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
