Nicola Lamb: Quick resolution vital to keep tourist cash flowing

'The country is also the financially sick man of the Middle East'. Photo / AP

Opinion

For anyone who has felt the mad energy of dusty Cairo, survived the Egyptian Museum sauna, nearly evaporated in the Aswan heat and been wheedled out of their spare change the length of the land, it's hard not to feel both hope and trepidation at what is unfolding in Egypt.

There's hope that those you spoke to who would quietly, resignedly, say "we need change" will finally get it.

There's apprehension at the potential for ugliness and disaster at turmoil in such a large and strategic country.

And there's fear that a prolonged period of uncertainty and instability will put off would-be travellers for a long time - badly hurting the people who survive on the tourist dollar.

Those people are everywhere: From the ones who try to squeeze an Egyptian pound out of you for pointing out the best spot from which to shoot the Sphinx; to the Nile rowboat traders riding the cruise boats' wash to fling fabrics on the top decks; the Luxor shop owners who will talk you into buying too many things you'll never look at again, and the guides who walk through the cold night along the camel track up Mt Sinai.

Viewed from a distance, Egypt has the regional clout you'd expect of a once great civilisation and 80 million-strong nation. Seen up close it quickly sinks in just how much the country is also the financially sick man of the Middle East.

All those people exist on 6 per cent of the land and 20 per cent live below the poverty line. Just 20 million are internet users and 55 million mobile phone subscribers.

The infrastructure is atrocious. Eighteen million daily try to navigate the all-day rush hour of Cairo in beaten-up old bombs with intersections six to eight lanes abreast. Traffic jams are so prevalent, people make livings hawking boxes of tissues and feather dusters to becalmed drivers. The railway system is slow, unreliable and the trains elderly. Donkey-power rules in the country areas.

People scramble for what they can in a country with 9.7 per cent unemployment. Egypt gets by on the idea that doing the smallest thing is surely worth at least 1 Egyptian pound (20c).

Tourism is far too cheap. Admission tickets to see the pyramids at Giza, Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings and Abu Simbel - wonders of any world - cost less than $100 combined. Prices were reduced to draw tourists back after militant attacks scared them off a few years ago.

Normally it's perfectly safe for foreigners to visit. The fear is tourist numbers and desperately needed tourism revenue will take a hit again.

Revolutions can't be tidy and predictable but Egypt must somehow reach the shore of this storm as soon as possible for its own good.