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![]() Tuesday, November 17, 1998 Published at 10:27 GMT ![]() ![]() World: Middle East ![]() Tourists return to Luxor ![]() Unveiling the spruced-up sphinx ![]() A year after the massacre of 58 foreign tourists in Luxor, Egypt's tourism industry is slowly recovering. Last November, a band of Muslim militants charged the temple, and the attack kept the site nearly empty until the government staged a series of high-profile events.
But tourist executives estimate the Luxor incident cost Egyptian tourism about 50% of its annual $3.7bn revenues this year. "By any account, it was a catastrophe. I myself lost something like 85% of my business," said Ilhamy el-Zayyat, head of Egypt's Chamber of Tourism and owner of a major travel agency. Security stepped up Egypt fought against its image as a dangerous place with a publicity campaign that stressed the country's 20th century safety as well as its ancient splendour.
And the Islamic group which claimed responsibility for the attack seems weaker. Some of its leaders have declared a unilateral cease-fire while others have abandoned violence completely in favour of a political campaign to turn secular Egypt into a strict Islamic state. The Egyptian authorities say their security campaign against Islamic militants means less of a threat of random attacks. Back to the pyramids
Mohammed el-Deiry, director of archaeology in Luxor, said that about 3,000 tourists now visit the city's ancient sites every day, about 75% of the figure before the massacre. But the Luxor attack has not merely disappeared into the locality's 3,400-year history. Egypt's battle between secularism and Islamic extremism has gone on for decades. And although the tourists are back, police and plain clothes detectives with sub-machine guns mix with the crowds. ![]() |
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