Egyptian students rally for return of tourists (AP)

CAIRO – As hundreds of Egyptian college students rallied at the iconic pyramids of Giza Friday to promote tourism, camel guide Salah Shabani stood to the side and looked on with sadness.

It's been two weeks since a popular uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak from power, but there has been no return of the crowds of foreigners who come to gaze at the pyramids and get their picture on a camel.

"I used to make 600 Egyptian pounds ($102) a week, or more," said Shabani, 23, who has given visitors rides on his camel, Oscar, since he was a teenager. "Now there is nothing. There are no tourists."

Shabani, who married two months ago, said he worries he won't be able to support his wife and has doubts about having children. He said he didn't regret the uprising — many Egyptians are still savoring a victory that has captured the attention of people around the world and sparked similar protests across the Middle East — but the reality that it could have negative consequences has set in.

Tourism in this tourist mecca known for pyramids, mummies, colorful markets and the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has all but come to a halt since the uprising began in January and eventually forced Mubarak out on Feb. 11.

About 210,000 tourists fled the country in the last week of January, costing Egypt about $178 million, according to the government's statistics bureau, and cancellations for February add up to an estimated revenue loss of $825 million.

That is a lot for a nation that gets 5 percent to 6 percent of its gross domestic product from tourism, according to several estimates. As many as 2 million Egyptians work in tourism.

Students who organized Friday's rally said they hoped to combat any perception that Egypt is not safe. They painted their faces with the Egyptian flag, carried signs that said, "Trust me, I'm Egyptian," and wore black T-shirts that said: "I love Egypt."

"If I were a tourist, and seeing all the recent events, I might be afraid to be around here," said George Wagdy, a 23-year-old college graduate who just finished his military service and is looking for a job as an English and Spanish translator. "But what we are saying now that Egypt is safe and everything is back to normal."

Still, there were only a handful of foreigners at the pyramids, a far different scene than the usual dozens of packed tour buses coming and going all day.

Penelope Martinez, a 29-year-old from Mexico City, said she and her traveling companion, her 18-year-old sister, seriously considered canceling their trip.

"A lot of friends and family said we shouldn't come," said Martinez, who noted that many people perceive Mexico as unsafe after much drug-related violence and kidnappings in recent years.

"But I thought that if I feel safe going out in my country, I should feel OK here," she said. "We have only been here two days, but so far we feel very safe."

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Tourists stay away from storm-battered Queensland (AP)

SYDNEY – Dream holiday destination Queensland has a new nightmare. The flood waters have receded, the cyclone's fury is long spent — the welcome mat is out again. But tourists are staying away in droves.
"We saw all the floods and thought we might be in danger," said Ben Davis, 21, who's in Australia on a year-long work and holiday visa with his girlfriend, Danielle Hodgson.
The English couple planned a short jaunt to Sydney before heading to the tropical paradise of Australia's northeast coast. But one week has turned into six — and counting — as they watched first one, then a second natural disaster unfold in Queensland state and decided Sydney was a safer bet.
The sudden change of plans is a small example of a bigger problem for Queensland as it recovers from weeks of deadly flooding and from a massive cyclone.
The disasters have caused an abrupt image malfunction for the state, which includes some of the main drawcards in Australia's $40 billion a year tourism industry. Almost 6 million tourists visited Australia last year, and more than half of them went to Queensland, lured by Great Barrier Reef, thousands of miles of pristine beaches and year-round warm weather.
"The vast majority of the tourism businesses in the state have been completely untouched by the disasters. The problem is the phone has stopped ringing," said Anthony Hayes, the head of the government-funded promotional body Tourism Queensland.
Itinerary changes and trip cancellations have cut Queensland tourism revenue by an estimated $500 million since Christmas, said Daniel Gschwind, CEO of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council. Losses are still being assessed, but Gschwind expects that number to rise.
Tourism contributes $9.2 billion to the Queensland economy annually and provides more than 220,000 jobs.
Tourism officials say it is too early to say whether images of the disasters have affected the number of international visitors traveling to Australia. Industry workers and tourists themselves say many that are already in the country are avoiding Queensland.
Davis and Hodgson bought bus passes and planned to travel the popular east coast route through Queensland, stopping in Brisbane, Byron Bay and the Whitsunday Islands before looking for casual farm work in the fruit-growing region near Cairns. An extended stay in Sydney, Australia's most expensive city, almost ruined their entire trip when they had to shell out money for accommodation they hadn't planned for.
"We actually came really close to having no money, so we would have had to go home," Davis said. "I've only found a job just in time. Otherwise I was going to ring my dad and say `Can you sort us a flight out home?'"
Davis, who is staying at a hostel in Sydney, said he knew others in a similar position, staying in Sydney or Melbourne, while waiting for damaged areas to clear up and get back to normal.
While many tourism businesses were able to reopen quickly after the floods and storm, damage to roads was deterring travelers, with fewer caravans and busloads of backpackers making their way along the coast, Gschwind said.
The town of Airlie Beach — gateway to the tropical Whitsunday Islands — virtually emptied of tourists as Cyclone Yasi bore down on Queensland early this month, said Anthony O'Rourke, owner of the Airlie Waterfront Backpackers. One staffer said she took 17 cancellations in one shift alone, he said.
The storm ended up hitting the coast nearly 200 miles (300 kilometers) north of Airlie Beach and the town suffered only minimal damage, with most tourism operations opening up again quickly after it passed.
But many operations were still struggling because "everybody was under the impression that the whole of Queensland was flooded and it was a no-go zone," Danielle Seymour, the marketing manager of regional group Tourism Whitsundays.
Hayes said initial reports reflected up to an 80 percent drop in booking rates in some places in Queensland compared to last year, and that small businesses with limited cash flow were suffering most, and had started cutting back on staff.
Other destinations, such as Sydney, have benefited from Queensland's problems.
"Since about mid-December we've been literally full every night and at capacity," said Robert Smith, owner of the Jackaroo Hostel in Sydney's King's Cross, a nightclub and backpacker district that is humming with activity. "It's been good for us but it's been bad for Queensland."
Guests have extended their stays, sometimes for weeks, due to changes in plans for Queensland trips, and the hostel has been turning away up to 15 guests per day, Smith said.
In recognition of the importance of the tourism industry, the Australian and Queensland governments have each contributed $5 million for a support package aimed at attracting visitors back to the state, though Gschwind said more help was needed.
He said word of mouth was one of the keys to convincing travelers that the state was open for business, and the Queensland tourism council was using social networks to help. It has created a Facebook page called "Take a Queensland Holiday" where visitors can post photographs and stories to show that Queensland destinations are in good shape and encouraging others to come.
For Davis and Hodgson, making a trip to Queensland may be back on the cards now that the disasters have passed but it is not the priority it once was.
"We'll probably go up there in two months time," Davis said. "We're enjoying Sydney, so it could have been worse, it's worked out OK."
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Wooing Jittery Tourists Back to Egypt (Time.com)

Chantal and Jean Gabriel Blanc are having the vacation of their lives. After all, they practically have Egypt's most famous destinations all to themselves. The French couple rave about the deserted beaches at Red Sea resorts that are usually overrun with tourists. The recent revolution, which overthrew one of the Arab world's longest serving dictators, may have been a victory for the Egyptians (and the Blancs), but it was a disaster for the country's tourism industry. More than a million visitors fled during the first week of the 18-day-long protests, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Visitors who ignored international travel advisories and stayed may have suffered the occasional whiff of tear gas, curfews or disturbing sights like tanks on the streets. But these more intrepid visitors also got the chance to witness modern history in the making and can perhaps better appreciate Egypt's past. On a day trip to visit the pyramids, just outside of Cairo, the Blancs relished the solitude. "You can almost imagine what it was like during the Pharos' time, when it was just desert and no people," says Jean Gabriel Blanc, gesturing to the stone courtyard between the outstretched paws of the Sphinx. "I could meditate here." (See the Mideast democracy wave.)

Of course, not everyone is thrilled. Just in front of the pyramids, tour guides, trinket sellers and men offering camel rides stand morosely in small groups, listlessly smoking cigarettes and fretting about how they will be able to afford their next meal. Guide Abdullah Faid says he hasn't had a job since January 25th, the day the protests started in Cairo's Tahrir Square. His family's papyrus shop is shuttered for lack of business, though he offers to open it up in the hopes of a quick sale. He's not sure yet if the revolution has been good for his country. Faid acknowledges that Egypt's overthrown leader, Hosni Mubarak, was corrupt and stole from the people. But he says that the doings of the elite rarely had an effect on his own livelihood, which came from generous foreign tourists. The protestors in the square may be happy, he grumbled, but his own life had decidedly taken a turn for the worse. "Before, I never had to worry about feeding my family. Now I'm not even sure I will have enough to eat by the end of the day."

An estimated 1.8 million Egyptians are directly employed in the tourism sector, and another five million in secondary industries like the manufacture and sale of tourism-related merchandise. If you multiply that by an average family size of eight, says Tarek Swelim, an art historian who leads specialized tour groups for visitors from the U.S., "You will realize what huge impact this has on Egypt as a whole." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that tourists spend some $318 million a day. (See TIME's special package "The Middle East in Revolt.")

Such a significant loss of income might explain the bizarre footage broadcast around the world of a camel charging through Cairo's Tahrir Square on day nine of the protests. The camel-rider and a group of men on horseback wheeled around the square bashing protestors with riding crops while yelling at them to clear out. If anyone knows who the men were, Faid won't say. But he does admit that they came from the very same group of camel guides and horsemen now milling around the base of the pyramids in search of customers. "Look, I don't like that camel man, because I think he gave a wrong image of Egyptians, and now people won't want to take camel rides any more," says Faid. Still, he understands the guy's motivation. Standing in front of the great pyramid of Cheops, Faid waves his hand at the entrance gates just down the road. Normally, he says, the lines in front of the ticket booths would be scores deep. Now, you can just make out a couple of horses dozing in the shade of a tree and a street empty of taxis. "We are not asking for the government to give us anything. We just want to work. We want to do our jobs. But the protesters scared everyone away. We were upset."

Despite the short term losses, Swelim, who has had two major American tour groups - one from the Stanford Alumni Association and the other from Yale - cancel planned trips, believes that Egypt will eventually be better off. "Yes, tourism definitely flourished during Mubarak. But that doesn't mean everything else did." He describes a deteriorating education system and stagnating political scene. It was economy that benefited a tiny elite and a society in decline. "We have a chance to start over, and when we do, we will have even more tourists coming. They will want to go to Tahrir Square to see where Egyptians stood up to a modern-day pharaoh. This isn't so far fetched. After all, New York's "Ground Zero," site of the attacks of September 11th, is now one of the city's visited sites.

Turning the site of the revolution into a tourist destination can only happen after Western countries lift their travel advisories warning their citizens not to visit. At the moment, say officials, the situation is still too tense to make a call. Tanks are still out on the streets, and protests - over housing, pay or labor disputes - could turn violent. The police have not returned to their posts, and while crime does not seem to be too much of a concern, it is true that security at several prisons was breached during the prisons, allowing criminals to escape. (See pictures of demonstrations across the Middle East.)

Until the embassies are comfortable that security has returned, they are unlikely to alter their warnings. American state department regulations require a minimum 30-day wait period before Egypt's status can be changed. That's when things will start looking up, says Swelim. "The Americans are the most fragile. Once it's known that the Americans are coming back, everyone else will come too." Until then, the more adventuresome tourists like the Blancs will enjoy having the country to themselves. "Last year it would have been impossible to get a picture in front of the Sphinx with out a crowd," says Chantal Blanc, holding up her camera like a trophy. "This is the best time to visit Egypt." Egyptians are hoping that idea catches on.

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