PHOTO: Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Last Sunday's attack on a tourist bus in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula sent a wave of alarm through the travel industry in fear that it might signal a coming wave of attacks on tourists. Although Egypt has been wracked with political upheaval and sporadic waves of violence since summer 2013, tourists had not been targets throughout the period, until Sunday.
The political turmoil began with peaceful mass demonstrations that led to the overthrow by the Egyptian military of President Mohamed Morsi. Supporters of Morsi then rose up in protest against the removal of the president, and clashes with the military led to dozens of deaths. But through it all tourists were never targeted. Sunday's attack was different.
The Islamist militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which claimed responsibility for the attack that killed three Korean tourists, issued a threat telling all tourists to leave the country before Feb. 20, "before it's too late," according to reports.
The bus was en route from St. Catherine's Monastery in the south Sinai Peninsula to Israel. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed the attack on the bus "headed towards the Zionists" was part of its "economic war against this regime of traitors."
In response to the attack the Egyptian military launched an operation to pursue Islamist militants in the region. Egyptian security forces also cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of deposed Egyptian President Morsi, which claims no links to violent attacks.
St. Catherine's Monastery and the beach resort area of Sharm el-Sheikh are popular sites for international travelers, but are rarely visited by Americans, who usually visit Cairo, the Pyramids at Giza and then cruise the Nile to the monuments in Luxor and Karnak.
Tour operators who are currently operating in Egypt say they are monitoring the situation.
"The Sinai has been dangerous for travel since early 2011," said Ronen Paldi, president of Ya'lla Tours. "Ya'lla is firmly not letting any of our groups or FIT's do that… St. Catherine needs to be out of any tourist map until further notice, as sad as it is. The recent attack will affect the beach resort along the Red Sea and will mostly affect the Bedouins that make their living out of it. It will have no effect on U.S. travel as very few U.S passengers, if any, travel to the Red Sea at any time, let alone in times like what we have now. Europeans are the ones that come in direct charters to Sharm el Sheik and will be the ones to cancel and reevaluate their continuation of visiting the region."
Richard Krieger, president of Isram, told Travel Pulse, "It is always alarming when we tourists anywhere in the world are threatened. It is more troubling in the case of Egypt, where so many of us have our hopes pinned on the situation stabilizing and an eventual return to a strong and safe tourism infrastructure. Due to the past several years of instability in Egypt, we are, sadly, well versed in getting our clients out of harm's way. We will continue to monitor the situation, take all necessary actions when our clients are at risk, and never give up looking towards a brighter future for Egypt and the Egyptian people."
Bob Drumm, president of General Tours expressed the feelings of most of the travel industry when he called the situation in Egypt "a heartbreaking mess.
"We have no scheduled departures at present, just a trickle of private travelers," he said. "We counsel them very carefully and our concierge is in touch repeatedly with them. We impose no penalties or cancellation fees upon any traveler to Egypt at this time."
Abercrombie & Kent told Travel Pulse that its programs in Egypt have not been affected by the weekend attack in Sinai. "Taba, where the incident occurred, is located 260 miles away from Cairo, 590 miles from Luxor and 720 miles from Aswan," said A&K spokeswoman Jean Fawcett. "We do not recommend travel to Sinai region."
The situation in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, Fawcett said, remains calm, "with Egyptians and visitors going about their business in a normal manner."
According to Fawcett, "Security has been heightened across the country and tourist areas have a visible police presence. Each key tourist zone has its own security team comprised of tourist, district and state police as well as Egyptian special forces. Regular patrols take place in the immediate vicinity of the sites and deep into the desert. A sophisticated security screening system is in place at every major hotel, resort, museum, and tourist site. Vehicles are not permitted to enter any hotel or tourist site without being thoroughly checked at the gates by security personnel and dogs trained to detect explosives. Several check points are located en route to all major monument sites."
Abercrombie & Kent offices in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Sharm el Sheikh, Abu Simbel and Alexandria continue to closely monitor developments, she said, "and are on call 24/7 to assist with guest or travel agent inquiries."
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