Tourism: Egypt Explores Tourism Beyond The Package Tour

In Egypt, tourism is big business. Nearly 13 million people visited the land of the pharaohs in 2008, and officials say the global economic crisis caused only a temporary slippage in the numbers in 2009.

A budding eco-travel movement is emerging, almost unnoticed amid the bulging tour buses and packed cruise ships. Its leaders are trying to tap into the skills and knowledge of Egypt's Bedouins and other tribal peoples, who have been all but ignored by the mainstream tourism industry.

The tourism experience in Egypt is best known for the hordes of tour groups circling the Great Pyramids of Giza or wilting under the desert sun at Luxor's Valley of the Kings.

Egypt's annual tourism revenues of nearly $7 billion in 2005 soared to more than $10.5 billion in 2008.

The government has razed shantytowns and swept aside poor villagers in efforts to make the experiences more pleasant for tourists.

Tourists take pictures of the temple of Abu Simbel, south of Aswan, Egypt, in 2008.
Integrating Traditional Communities

But in late October, activists and businesspersons gathered with members of various Egyptian tribes in the remote southeastern desert to celebrate their heritage and traditions, and to explore ways of responsibly bringing people to the Egypt that package tour visitors never see.

The second annual Characters of Egypt festival featured Sinai Bedouins from the eastern hills, Nubian tribes from the south, and the tribes of the western desert from as far as the Siwa Oasis near the Libyan border.

It was a rare opportunity for the tribes to swap songs, stories, food and art, and to debate whether this new eco-travel movement could provide desperately needed jobs without forever changing their lives.

The head of Egypt's national parks, Mustafa Foudy, said that last concern is part of his job — to see that eco-tourism doesn't turn into a smaller version of mass tourism.