Tourism is greater than terrorism, says Bunnik

There has been a lot of news about Egypt in the past week after the tragedy of the Russian plane crash. Terrorism is a great evil but it is not bigger than tourism. Tourism will never be defeated by terrorism. I have spent the last 4 days in Cairo and flew out of Cairo Airport this morning. What I found was a city going about its business as normal with all tourist sights open and tourists enjoying themselves. The locals are upset and fearful of the damage this latest incident will do to their tourism industry. They are also upset at the senseless loss of life.

Throughout my stay in Cairo at no stage did I feel unsafe. The security was tight as would be expected but everywhere people were just going about their business – including tourists.

The numbers associated with the tourism industry are staggering – this year 107 million Chinese will travel overseas. Each year around 10 million people visit Egypt, including 2 million Russians. Over 1 millions jobs in Egypt are supported by the tourism industry. Every minute of every day many millions of tourists are enjoying themselves and discovering new cultures and experiences. At the same time many millions of families are supported by the people that work in tourism.

Meanwhile the number of tourists caught up in terrorist incidents around the world is minute compared to the numbers travelling and compared to the numbers affected by other things like traffic accidents.

This is not to say that the loss of even one life is not tragic. Of course it is and we should do everything in our power to keep people safe. However we should not let the fear of terrorism stop us travelling – if we do the terrorists win. There is no way I will ever let them win. #TourismIsGreaterThanTerrorism #supportEgypt

Ps – this coming week 40,000 Russian tourists (plus thousands more from other European countries) will not be visiting Egypt. Think about all the transfers (bus drivers, mechanics), food (farmers, wholesalers, cooks, waiters) and hotel rooms (cleaners, reception staff, tour guides, resort staff, linen providers) that these 40,000+ tourists would have used. This is the true impact of the fear that terrorism creates.

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Bunniks Tours Dennis Bunnik Eypt terrorism tourism