Tourism: Luxor massacre changed tourism in Egypt

Egypt Daily Star

It was a stunning attack, still recalled with horror a decade later: Terrorists armed with knives and automatic weapons massacred 58 foreign tourists, mainly Germans, Swiss and Japanese, at one of Egypt's most popular pharaonic temples.

But despite the dramatic bloodshed, the Nov. 17, 1997 attack at Hatshepsut temple in Luxor turned out to be the last gasp in the wave of terrorism that struck Egypt in the 1990s.

The 10-year anniversary of the attack highlights the changes that have happened since in Egypt — both in tourism and terrorism.

Over the years, the jailed leaders of the once robust Islamic rebellion have publicly called for an end to the violence, after Egyptian security forces crushed the two main groups of the 1990s, Islamic Jihad and the Gamaa Islamiya.

On Sunday, one of the top ideologues of radical Islam — Sayed Imam, a jailed Jihad leader — is to publish his "Revisions," a book recanting his past calls for the use of force to overthrow Arab governments seen as infidel.

The Nile Valley, once the heartland of violence, has not seen a major attack since the Hatshepsut slayings. But the nature of terrorism has now shifted: Since 2004, Egypt saw a string of deadly bombings on Red Sea beach resorts in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 121 people, including many tourists.

Egypt says those attacks were allegedly carried out by Sinai Bedouin radicalized by Palestinian fighters. But Israeli and some Western analysts have warned Al-Qaeda sympathizers may have had a role, raising worries of international terrorism in the country.

But between 1997 and Sinai attacks, Egypt's vital tourism industry — a top money maker — has changed as well, become more varied and resilient. The Hatshepsut massacre sparked a rethinking of Egypt's tourism strategy, pushing authorities to promote Red Sea resorts, far from the Nile Valley temples. Now tourists spend more time at beaches, with day trips to the pharaonic sites.