AFP Asia Business

Egypt grand museum delay puts tourism hopes on hold

In the shadow of the Grand Egyptian Museum, souvenir shop owner Mona has been readying for the tourist boom she hoped the long-awaited opening would bring — now once again out of reach.”I had bet everything on this opening,” she told AFP from her shop, just steps from the iconic pyramids of Giza, which the much-anticipated museum overlooks.Originally scheduled to fully open this month, the museum was expected to attract up to five million visitors annually, fuelling optimism across Cairo’s battered tourism sector.”We planned our entire summer and fall packages around the museum opening,” said Nadine Ahmed, a 28-year-old agent with Time Travel tours.”But with group cancellations, refunds and route changes, we’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars.”Though parts of the museum have been open for months, the main draw — the treasures of Tutankhamun — will remain under wraps until the official launch.Less than three weeks before its July 3 opening, the government announced another delay, this time pushing the landmark event to the final quarter of the year.Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly cited regional security concerns and the desire to host an event of “global scale”.- Decades in the making -The vast museum, two decades in the making, has faced repeated delays — from political upheaval and economic crises to the Covid-19 pandemic.Ahead of the expected launch, Mona, who asked to be identified by her first name only, took out a loan to renovate her store and stock up on goods inspired by the museum’s collection.A few streets away, Mohamed Mamdouh Khattab, 38, prepared months in advance, hiring and training extra staff and expanding his inventory.”The opening of the museum is a key milestone,” said Khattab, who owns a sprawling bazaar of handcrafted jewellery and ancient replicas.”It’s a project that should have been launched a long time ago,” said the vendor, whose family has been in the industry since the 1970s.Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of Egypt’s workforce, but the sector has struggled — from the fallout of the 2011 Arab Spring to militant attacks and the Covid shutdown.Still, signs of recovery have emerged: Egypt welcomed 3.9 million tourists in the first quarter of 2025, up 25 percent from the same period last year — itself a record.- Fragility -At a Giza papyrus workshop, 30-year-old tour guide Sara Mahmoud hopes the opening will revive visitor numbers.”Big openings have brought a lot of tourism to Egypt before,” she said, pointing to the 2021 Pharaohs’ Golden Parade and the reopening of the Avenue of the Sphinxes.”These events get people excited — we saw the crowds coming in.”Such momentum could make a real difference, said Ragui Assaad, an economist at the University of Minnesota.”Any initiative that directly increases foreign exchange earnings is likely to have a good return on investment,” he told AFP.”If you compare it with all the other mega-projects, which do not increase foreign exchange earnings… this is a far better project.”He was referring to a sweeping infrastructure drive under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, including the construction of a massive new administrative capital east of Cairo.The stakes are high: since 2022, Egypt’s currency has lost two-thirds of its value, squeezing household budgets and straining every layer of the economy.”There were days when I sold just one bracelet,” Mona lamented, thinking back to the years when “tourists arrived in droves”.

Syrian forces advance on Sweida as Druze leader says truce talks underway

Syrian government forces were advancing towards the southern city of Sweida on Monday to quell deadly clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes, with one Druze armed group saying talks with authorities aimed at brokering a truce were underway.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported 99 people killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday — 60 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel and seven unidentified people in military uniforms.As the violence escalated, Israel — which has previously warned it would intervene in Syria to protect the Druze — said it struck “several tanks” in the area as a “warning” to DamascusAn AFP correspondent saw Syrian forces on Monday take control of the Druze village of Al-Mazraa, where Bedouin fighters were also located.A commander, Ezzeddine al-Shamayer, told AFP the forces “are heading toward Sweida” city.In a statement, the interior ministry declared that “army and internal security forces have moved closer to the centre” of Sweida province.Bassem Fakhr, spokesperson for the Men of Dignity movement, one of the largest Druze factions in Sweida, told AFP talks were “underway between the notables of the city of Sweida and representatives of the general security (forces) and the defence ministry to reach a solution”.Druze religious authorities had called on Monday evening for a ceasefire in the area, saying they were not opposed to the Syrian central government.But Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, expressed his “rejection of the entry” of general security forces into the province, demanding “international protection”.Israel — which also has a Druze population, and has previously attacked Syria in purported defence of the group — reported hitting several tanks heading towards Sweida on Monday.The strikes were “a clear warning to the Syrian regime — we will not allow harm to be done to the Druze in Syria”, Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X.- Fear of massacres -The fighting in the south underscores the challenges facing interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of civil war.Syria’s pre-war Druze population was estimated at around 700,000, many of them concentrated in Sweida province.The Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.Following deadly clashes with government forces in April and May, local and religious leaders reached an agreement with Damascus under which Druze fighters have been providing security in the province.The streets of Sweida were deserted Monday, with an AFP photographer reporting distant gunfire during funerals.”We lived in a state of extreme terror — the shells were falling randomly,” said Abu Taym, a 51-year-old father, adding “most shops are closed”.”We fear a repeat of the coastal scenario,” said Amal, 46, referring to massacres in March of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in northwest Syria, where groups affiliated with the government were blamed for most of the killings.”We are not against the state, but we are against surrendering our weapons without a state that treats everyone the same,” she added.In a post on X, Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra urged his troops to “protect your fellow citizens” from “outlaw gangs”, and to “restore stability to Sweida”.- ‘Lack of state institutions’ -The violence began on Sunday when Bedouin gunmen abducted a Druze vegetable vendor on the highway to Damascus, prompting retaliatory kidnappings.Though hostages were later released, the fighting carried on Monday outside Sweida city, with mortar fire hitting villages and dozens wounded, according to the Suwayda 24 news outlet.In a Sunday post on X, Interior Minister Anas Khattab said “the lack of state, military and security institutions is a major reason” for the ongoing tensions in Sweida.The Observatory said members of Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslims, had sided with security forces during earlier confrontations with the Druze.Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Sweida, and violence occasionally erupts between the two sides.The wave of coastal massacres in March targeting the Alawite community and the subsequent attacks on Druze areas, as well as a deadly attack on a Damascus church in June, have undermined confidence in the new Syrian authorities’ ability to protect minorities.str-lk-at-mam/nad/smw