Terrorism's Effect on Tourism in Egypt

Research Topic
Terrorism’s Effect on Tourism in Egypt
Bachelor Thesis
Geneva Business School
Bachelor in International Management
Submitted by:
Mariam Mounib
Geneva, Switzerland
Approved on the application of:
Dr. Steven Mallon, Global Dean of Geneva Business School
And
Dr. N. Jackman-Lansdowne
Date: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Declaration of Authorship
“I hereby declare:
● That I have written this work on my own without other people’s help (copy-editing,
translation, etc.) and without the use of any aids other than those indicated;
● That I have mentioned all the sources used and quoted them correctly in accordance
with academic quotation rules;
● That the topic or parts of it are not already the object of any work or examination of
another course unless this has been explicitly agreed on with the faculty member in
advance;
● That my work may be scanned in and electronically checked for plagiarism.”
Date: XXXXXXXX
Name: Mariam Mounib
Signature:

Acknowledgements
"First of all I thank my teachers and advisors for the help they offered me throughout my
research period and throughout my tenure at Geneva Business School. Their constant help in
editing and advising allowed me to complete this very important work in my life. I would also
like to thank Mr. Samih Sawiris for so generously allotting me time from his very busy schedule
and allowing me to interview him and giving me insight into tourism in Egypt from a firsthand
perspective. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for the unceasing support they have
always given me and for the opportunities provided to me by them."

Table of Contents
Declaration of Authorship...............................................................................................................1
Acknowledgements.........................................................................................................................2
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................3
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Summary of Literature Review .....................................................................................7
The Growth of the Tourism Industry Across the World.............................................................8
The Connection Between Terrorism and Tourism......................................................................8
The Psychology Behind the Behavior of Tourists.....................................................................13
Economic Impact of Terrorism on the Demand of Tourism.....................................................13
Socio-Economic and Cultural Reasons Tourists are Terrorist Targets.....................................14
Chronology of Attacks on Egyptian Territory...........................................................................15
Tourism Reform Initiatives Taken by the Egyptian Government.............................................16
Administrative Reforms, Capacity Building and Legislative Reforms.....................................16
Rebranding Egyptian Tourism and Partnership with CNN.......................................................17
Literature Gap............................................................................................................................18
Summary....................................................................................................................................19
Chapter 3: body of Thesis .............................................................................................................19
Introduction...............................................................................................................................19
Justification of the research ......................................................................................................20
Implementation of the research strategy as well as the research settings .................................20
Research Philosophy..................................................................................................................20
Research Design........................................................................................................................21
Research approach ...................................................................................................................21
Empirical model of the research................................................................................................21
Data Presentation and Modification Is this section missing or is this a title?..........................24
Data Collection Method.............................................................................................................24
Sampling....................................................................................................................................25
Research Data analysis..............................................................................................................26
Limitations and Strengths of the Research ...............................................................................26
Chapter 4: Findings ......................................................................................................................27

Abstract
The tourism industry of Egypt is currently facing some major difficulties due to terrorism and
other factors. The purpose of this research is to find out the impact of terrorism on the revenue of
the tourism industry of the nation, and to consider the steps that have been already taken by the
government of Egypt in order to suggest and recommend what should be done next to combat
terrorism in order to empower the tourism industry further.
The philosophy of this research is interpretivism in that it involves the researcher’s interpreted
elements of the study and human interest. Accordingly, this philosophy emphasizes qualitative
analysis over quantitative analysis. The design of the research is descriptive as it explains and
validates the hypothesis of the correlation between terrorist attacks and level of tourism in Egypt.
This research conducted a qualitative research process through interviewing a business person in
Egyptian tourism industry named Samih Sawiris. Both the literature review and QDA
(Qualitative Data Analyzer) miner based thematic analysis have been done for data analysis.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The tourism industry in Egypt is referred to as one of the leading sources of income that
is crucial to the economy of the nation. During its peak season, the tourism sector of Egypt

employs about 12 percent of the workforce of the country, serving 14.7 million visitors in the
nation approximately (Neumayer & Plümper, 2016). As per the data collected in the year 2015,
during the peak season of tourism, the total amount of revenue earned by the mentioned sector is
nearly 12.5 billion dollars, which is roughly 11 to 14.4 percent of the foreign country revenue
(Avraham, 2015).
The tourism industry of Egypt started flourishing in the 1950s. In the year 1951, the total
number of tourists in Egypt was nearly 0.1 million (Kapuściński & Richards, 2016). However,
the nation evidenced a drastic rise in the tourism sector from 1975 onwards due to a number of
factors. Firstly, this was the period when Egypt eased Visa restrictions for many of the European,
as well as North American countries. Secondly, Egypt established embassies in new countries
like Austria, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark. Thirdly, during the 2000s, the tourist inflow
of Egypt increased despite the Luxor Masacre which took place in 1997. This increase was due
to highly developed consumer services which were provided to consumers in the nation and
immediately after the New Year’s Millenium Concert which was organized by the Ministry of
Tourism at the foot of the Great Pyramids of Giza. In the year 2010, tourism was found to reach
a high point generating about 12.5 billion dollars (Morakabati & Kapuściński, 2016). However,
with an increase in the number of terrorist attacks and the onset of the revolution in the
mentioned nation, from the year 2012, a gradual decrement in the number of tourists in Egypt
was noticed. Some of the mention worthy attacks that are responsible for the decrement of
tourism in Egypt include the Cairo terrorist attack, the Dahab Bombing and the recent bombing
in the Giza region in the year 2018.
Although the Luxor massacre took place in the year 1997, and tourism continued to
flourish after that date, new attacks brought this tragedy to the forefront with the Arab Spring as
nations began to give travel warnings to their citizens. Media coverage began to highlight the
once forgotten incident with statistics. Approximately fifty-eight foreign tourists were killed.
According to researchers, the exiled leaders of Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian Islamic
organization, instigated the massacre. The attack took place at Deir-el-Bahari, one of the top
tourists attractions in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The terrorist attacks which began in the
90s, have continued on a certain level despite the amount of attention they received from the
media. In more recent years, these attacks have received more official coverage from television
networks and unofficial coverage due to the rise of the use of social media and consumer
generated “news”. This is an indicator of the development of how we receive information and
how we react to it and the correlation between digital advancements and the flow of information.
Several incidents which have taken place in recent years may not have reached global attention
had it not been for social media. This coverage has had a more direct effect on tourism than
events which took place in the pre digital era.
On December 28th, 2018, three Vietnamese tourists, as well as an Egyptian tour guide,
were killed after a roadside bomb struck their tourist bus in the Giza region (Buigut, 2018). In
addition, more than 11 individuals were wounded in this attack. Repeated terrorist attacks led to
a drastic decrement in tourists in the nation. Thus, it is a clear correlation between the tourist
attacks that have taken place and the negative impact evidenced in the business of tourism. The
rationale of this research is to find out the impact of terrorism on the tourism industry of Egypt.
Terrorism has resulted in the decrease of revenue in the nation’s tourism industry. From the
annual reports and diminishing GDP of the nation, it is evident that the revenue from the tourism