And so ends the Egyptian tourism industry.
86% come from Europe, totalling $4.1 - 11 billion annually receipts from tourism. Now kiss it goodbye; from a country that had less than 1% GDP growth last year.
In a country of 81+ million. Powder keg.
Remember your wonderful Egyptian vacation. Read this and weep.
Hawass was doing a lot to stop Egyptian tourism. He is the one that planned on closing the Giza plateau (pyramids) before 9/11. He has hurt both Egyptian tourism and archeology by severely restricting firmans to non Muslim universities. He has done a lot of damage during his tenure, and he is an arrogant SOB to boot. When I studied Egyptology at UCLA and when I worked with some Egyptologists during my tenure with AIA, no one like or respected Hawass.
Perhaps his successor will do something to actually help Egyptology and tourism.