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EGYPT KIDNAPPING UNLIKELY TO AFFECT TOURISM

Thursday, 02 Oct 2008

Tourists visiting with the intention of purchasing property in Egypt may be having second thoughts this week. The kidnapping of tourists by a gang of masked men while on safari in the Gilf Kebir region has hit Egyptian tourism hard. Egyptian officials welcomed the five Germans, one Romanian and five Italians with flowers at the airport and took them to a military hospital for check ups before they flew home to their respective countries.

Thankfully a peaceful end to the tourist hostage crises was reached, and the booming industry was quick to point out that the kidnappers were in no way Islamic militants. 'The kidnapping is not connected to terrorist attacks that have happened in Egypt in the past years,' said Simon Kitchen. Tourism companies reported that the effect of the kidnappings so far seems mild. Indicating that soon accommodation in Egypt will be brimming with enthusiastic tourists again.

As long as you're not planning on buying remote desert property in Egypt, we are led to believe that you will be fine inside its borders. As an armed kidnapping attack in the primitive Sahara desert, a remote, lightly policed area, it is unlikely to have a broad impact on the hotel industry, Egypt property, or commercial locations such as the Red Sea resorts in the Sinai Peninsula. “I don't see the kidnapping of tourists near the Sudanese border having much impact on tourism arrivals on the Red Sea,” Kitchen said. Security Affairs expert Guido Steinberg referred to the kidnappings as a 'Saharan' phenomenon that takes place in huge open desert spaces along smuggling routes, and targets people, weapons, and drugs.

A last word of encouragement for anyone intent on purchasing Egypt property comes from one of the freed Italian tourists, who said, “This was my first visit to Egypt and I am planning to visit Egypt in the future. What has happened (the kidnapping) could happen in any other country.”