Tourism has several negative economic effects in Egypt. One of these effects is the dependence of the country on international tourists since they make up the majority of the market share in this industry. In 2008, more than 12.8 million international tourists visited the country (Agarwal, 2012). This generated more than $11 billion in terms of revenue. Agarwal (2012) asserts that tourism employs around 12% of the population’s workforce. The aspect can be viewed as a negative effect on the economy since it contributes significant amount of money to the GDP. Countries where these tourists originate from can easily hold Egypt at ransom in case they want to initiate any negotiations that are not favourable to the country.  Failure to adhere to the stipulations might lead to severe consequences like the country banning any travels to Egypt. That would have a significant impact on the country’s GDP hence hindering economic growth prospects. The aspect of being held at ransom acts as a negative effect of tourism to the economy (Agarwal, 2012). Tourism also results to increased demand for basic goods and services. The price hikes usually affect the local residents negatively since their income does not increase proportionately.  Tourism development is usually associated with increased demand for real estate, which consequently increase land value and building costs. This erodes economic opportunities for local residents due to the dominance by the outsiders. The aspect is not favourable for the economy since major progress will be halted in case the foreigners pull-out their businesses (Agarwal, 2012). The economy is more stable when most key businesses are owned by the locals or the government since it is easy to have control.

When it comes to socio-cultural aspects, tourism has the ability of changing local cultures to various commodities. On most occasions, traditional ethnic festivals, religious rituals and rites are sanitized and reduced in order to conform to various tourist expectations. When a destination is presented as a tourism product, demand for entertainment, arts, souvenirs and other tourism commodities begin to exert influence. This may result to changes in human values (Agarwal, 2012). Sacred places are no longer respected by people once they are perceived as goods for trade. They lose their value among the locals. Tourism also has the effect of bringing new cultural practises that are not desirable. A country like Egypt is well known for its adherence to various practises whose breach is met by various consequences. The new values brought about by tourists from abroad might not be consistent with the values being practised at present. Some people end up adapting the new values hence doing away with the original ones. This results to conflict between the people practising the different values (Ibrahim, 2013). Children born in this generation will end up being confused since they are not aware of what they ought to do. Another issue is that Egypt owns a range of ancient sites that are well known to many people including the children. These include the great pyramids, sphinx and the Valley of the Kings. Representatives of the Egyptian tourism industry have raised the need for concern with regard to visiting these areas. Increasing number of tourists tend to damage the sites as they visit. This is a cause of concern since the sites need to be preserved for future generations (Ibrahim, 2013).

Tourism also has the ability of bringing about negative impacts on the environment. Among the negative impacts is the carbon emission that emanates from this activity. Tourism usually involves a lot of travelling hence there is use of locomotives. For international tourists, they travel by both air and road. Due to the consumption of gasoline, this results to emission of carbon gases. Carbon emission pollutes the environment as more CO2 is introduced into the atmosphere. This might result to various health hazards. In areas where it is rampant, there is a reduced life expectancy level (Ibrahim, 2013). The more the green house gases are introduced into the atmosphere the high the chances of global warming, which can be very detrimental.  Another issue is that social influxes of tourists create additional demand for local resources. This mostly affects the poorer and remote parts of the country. For example food, energy and water are used more frugally compared to the west. International tourists usually require more than would be considered to be a “fair share” based on the standards of these regions (Ibrahim, 2013). In some of the places the infrastructure cannot meet this demand. As a result, there is a gradual environmental deterioration unless significant investments are erected in the wake of the tourist boom. It does not take additional water extraction from groundwater and watercourses for there to be notable changes in wetlands and rivers. The same way, demand for hydro-electric schemes might have negative effects on aquatic habitats (Ibrahim, 2013).

References

Agarwal, s. (2012). Impacts Emanating From Tourism. Journal of Tourism Growth and     Development, 7(11), 13.

Ibrahim, F. (2013). Impacts of Tourism in Egypt. Journal of Tourism, 5(7), 89.

 
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