Heritage Tourism On Archaeological Sites In Egypt Tourism Essay

Egypt is located in the North- Eastern corner of Africa and South-Western Asia and is commonly known as The Motherland of the World Land of Civilizations and “The Greatest Power in Human History” being reputable for its 7,000-year-old record of civilization and immense wealth of knowledge (SIS, 2011). Amongst all civilizations and nations, Egypt is known to be one of the world’s oldest tourist destinations, possessing one third of the worlds’ ancient monuments within its country. Besides its other archaeological and cultural monuments, the discovery of the Pharaonic antiquities long time ago has added a special appeal to Egypt, therefore boosting Egypt’s tourism industry. However, with the booming increase in Egypt’s tourism, conflicts and issues starts to surface concerning the management and conservation of the ancient Egyptian archaeological sites and treasures.

What defines Egypt is it’s massive number of archaeological sites that can be found all over the country and of course, its extraordinary architectural and heritage attractions such as the legendary Pyramids of Giza, the world-famous Valley of the Kings and the temple at Abu Simbel. These well-known and remarkable sites are the lifeblood of the country’s tourism industry where it attracts over 2 million visitors annually to Egypt (Boniface and Cooper, 2001).

Despite being one of the most highly industrialized country in the Arab region, Egypt’s petroleum and economy is not sufficient to provide adequate amount of jobs to it’s population of 73 million (e.g.: Boniface and Cooper, 2001; MINTEL, 2004). It is also mentioned by Weeks and Hetherington (2006) that tourism has been a key factor in Egypt’s economy for about the last two centuries and over the last generation. It has become a crucial component of the economy and is now the source of 45 percent of the country’s annual foreign currency earnings. Therefore tourism in Egypt plays a critical role of support for its economy where it benefits both the government and to all levels of the society.

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One of the main components of the tourism industry in Egypt is heritage tourism. Heritage itself as a concept has entered on to a global stage and penetrated into the local, regional and national arena (Burnett, 2001). The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) states that heritage and culture have become an important element in almost 40 per cent of all international trips taken (Timothy and Boyd, 2003) and despite of recession, heritage tourism still continued to grow (Hanna, 1993, cited in Timothy and Boyd, 2003). Throughout the world, ancient venues and archaeological monuments have become major tourism attractions (Laws, 2011) and one such destination is Egypt where the impacts of flourishing heritage tourism on ancient archaeological sites are apparent through out the country.

However, in spite of the thriving tourism industry in Egypt, conflicts and issues starts to arise that contradicts Egypt’s own tourism interest. In order to maximize revenue from the tourism industry, Egypt implemented the approach of opening more sites to visitors and promoting visits through advertising and high profile overseas tours of antiquities (Weeks and Hetherington, 2006). Ironically, the benefits of expanding Egypt’s tourism are being out weigh by the negative aspects. Lambert (2011) states that a bustling tourist industry is sadly known to be a double-edged sword. She added that, as most archaeological sites are very fragile and ancient, they were not meant to accommodate thousands of visitors on a daily basis. The overcrowding of tourists visiting, touching and stepping onto these sites, are destroying many archaeological attractions.

One such incident happened in February of 1988. A chunk of limestone fell from the Egyptian Sphinx, the half lion, half man relic built by the ancient Egyptians over 4,000 years ago. Recently on January 2011, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities had announced plans to close the tomb of Tutankhamen to tourists by the end of the year. The tomb, which was discovered some 89 years ago, was damaged as a result of the overwhelming visits of tourist, particularly over the past three decades (http://www.redorbit.com).

The mass tourism in Egypt has also impacted the Valley of the Kings, altering the physical and natural aspects of the environment. According to Gaetano Palumbo, the program director for North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for the World Monuments Fund, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered historical sites around the world:

One could say that, the heritage sites in Egypt are victims of their own success. In the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, visitor numbers have almost doubled in the past 10 years, from 1.5 million to close to 3 million, with peaks of 10,000 visitors a day. This creates massive problems in visitor management. … Drastic decisions may have to be taken in order to regulate visitor numbers, including temporary or permanent closures of ancient sites. 

Due to poor tourism and cultural heritage management, Bindlegas (1997) states that the decay of some of the world’s most fabulous ancient relics has been happening at a shocking rate. These major archaeological and cultural heritage sites represent the origins of human civilization and provide the best evidences of the historical and cultural development of humanity (Global Heritage Fund, 2010). If measures are not taken to start preserving and conserving the ancient monuments, it will be completely destroyed within centuries.

However, increasing the tourism receipts into Egypt and on the other hand, conserving these heritage sites is not as simple as it seems. Leask (2006) described that balancing the development of tourism opportunities and heritage conservation activities has been a continuous struggle for countries with tourism and cultural heritage management. The different parties involved are unable to decide on the same agreement, resulting in the lack of proper management that can benefit both the tourism and conservation of the ancient Egyptian archaeological sites and treasures.

Therefore this paper aims to identify the variables that constitute and associate to the impacts of heritage tourism on archaeological sites in Egypt.

AIM

To assess the impacts of heritage tourism on archaeological sites in Egypt

OBJECTIVES

– To review secondary literature about the environmental impacts of heritage tourism on archaeological sites in Egypt.

To study the conflict between heritage and tourism in Egypt.

To assess the management and conservation of archaeological sites in Egypt.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

DEFINING TOURISM

According to the Advance Release of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer, international tourism showed a strong recovery of almost 7% to 935 million in 2010, from the 4% decline during the global economic crisis in 2009. Through the decades, tourism is now known as one of the largest industry in the world, experiencing dynamic improvements and intense diversification, leading it to become one of the world’s fastest growing economic sector (e.g.: Youell, 1998; World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2011)). Therefore, prior to assessing the impacts of heritage tourism on archaeological sites in Egypt, it is first essential to define and understand the term ‘tourism’.

Even in early researches, the term ‘tourism’ had yielded, as many definitions as there were many studies of phenomenon (Cohen, 1974, cited in Wall and Mathieson, 2006). Guyer-Feuler who concentrated on the economical and statistical aspects of tourism, conceived the first definition of tourism in 1905, where it defined tourism as:

“A phenomenon unique to modern time which is dependent on the people’s increasing need for a change and relaxing, the wish of recognizing the beauties of nature and art and the belief that nature gives happiness to human beings and which helps nations and communities’ approaching to each other thanks to the developments in commerce and industry and the communication and transportation tools’ becoming excellent.” (Bahar, 2005: 2, as cited in Esen and Uyar, 2010)

The origin of the term tourism goes back to the 17th century where the root word ‘tour’ is derived from the Hebrew word ‘torah’ which means learning and examining. People who were sent on a voyage to explore distant areas to learn the social activities of the population living in those places are known by the Hebrews as ‘tourist’ and the behaviour as ‘touring’. (Bahar, 2005)

Some other few pioneers who attempted to define ‘tourism’ were Professor Hunzikar and Krapf (1941, cited in Holloway, 1994:1) of Berne University who states that it is:

The sum of phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-resident, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected to any earning activity.

Holloway (1994) then continues that tourism, besides being associated as a form of recreation or leisure; it might be where individuals or a group of individuals travel away from home. However, Holloway (1994) also questioned the specificity of the statement on whether tourism is defined by its purpose or the distance travelled. Indeed, it is a common perception and a popular understanding amongst people that the central aspects of tourism evolves around holidays, leisure and tours, engaging in different kinds of activities to have a good time and as long as being in a foreign land, it is considered to be tourism regardless of the distance travelled. However, tourism is more than just a cursory explanation of leisure, recreation and being in a foreign land.

In 1993, after much reviews, researches and further analysis on existing works of tourism definitions, the UNWTO (1993, cited in Youell, 1998:9), with co-operations from many international organizations, finally announced the officially accepted definition as:

“…the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.”

Therefore with the multitude of tourism definitions given by researchers and studies, which of these, can academics, organizations and professionals use as an accurate guideline in the tourism industry? In spite of the existence of many variations of tourism definitions and the popularity of tourism studies in recent decades, it has been discussed and acknowledged by academic researchers, organizations and industry professionals that there has been no specific means in defining the principal concept of the term ‘tourism’ due to its large complex nature of subject, involving diverse combinations of disciplines and industry sectors (e.g.: Morley, 1990; Youell, 1998; Goeldner, Ritchie and McIntosh, 2000; Dredge and Jenkins, 2007).

Moreover, regardless of the complications of specifying definitions for tourism, tourism is nothing without the tourists. The main factor that drives tourism is the tourists who are travelling and therefore any effort to understand tourism as a concept has to first understand the motivations behind the tourist’s decision to travel. Also, the definition of tourism is dependent on an individual’s perspectives and perception of tourism and also how it will fit into a particular purpose or situation (Dredge and Jenkins, 2007). In addition, the changes of the different definitions since the early 1900s till the present day demonstrates that tourism can no longer be associated to merely economics and geography (Arlt, 2010). As time passes with the continuous growth of the industry, researches into the concepts of tourism will persist to expand, eventually resulting in the creation of more definitions of tourism.

IMPACTS OF TOURISM

Tourism is an integration of close interactions involving the dynamic relationships of different variables or elements in the tourism travel process and thus, it can never be a standalone unit. Hence, any changes or effects to a variable will create a ripple effect within the whole tourism structure. With this, contributions made by the growth of the tourism industry will therefore lead to an increased economic activity within the country. Countries are increasingly becoming dependent on tourism, as it is one of the most rational and sustainable development choices that have the capability of creating employment to the communities and also acting as a main provision of foreign earnings to the economy. (UNWTO, 2010 – Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals)

While it is often the economic impacts of tourism that businesses and public organizations that are usually interested in (Stynes, 1999), the late twentieth century saw the emergence of environmental and socio-cultural impacts of tourism being controversial and critical issues discussed in tourism study (Youell, 1998). As the main objective of this paper aims to concentrate on the impacts of heritage tourism on the archaeological sites in Egypt, this section will therefore provide an overview of the positive and negative influences that tourism, in general, have on the economic, environment and socio-culture around the world.

Economic Impacts

It is predicted that by 2020, revenues earned from the tourism industry will be $1.5 trillion (Kumar and Prasad, n.d). Tourism being declared as one of the world’s largest industry is similar to any other businesses and industries; affecting the economy by generating income for the country’s economy, stimulating job opportunities for the people from the international level down to the local levels. Increasing competiveness amongst countries has also pushed the business capacity of the tourism industry to the level of, or, sometimes even exceeding trade commodities such as oil and food exports (UNWTO, 2011).

Tourism being a major player in the service sector is naturally dependent on labor therefore stimulating a great deal of employment opportunities both in developed and developing countries. The fact that tourism is an intergration of many various individual elements in a tourism travel process, the economic impacts from tourism will therefore affect industries in the construction sector, agriculture sector, commercial services sector such as retail and customer services and also the health and finance sector (e.g.: Wall and Mathieson, 2006; Ã-nder and Durgu, 2007). Tourist expenditures contributing to the balance of payments through foreign exchange earnings, and revenue generated from tourism developments can represent a crucial source of income for a nation’s economy (Balaguer & Cantavella-Jorda, 2002, cited in Seetanah, 2010). However on a negative note, seasonal tourism also known as induced employment, being influenced by the increase in the demand and supply of tourism causes the increase of low-paying jobs and often creating unemployment during off-peak seasons (Kreag, 2001). Peak periods of tourism can benefit the economy of a country, however on the expense of the locals, who might have to pay for the higher prices of goods and services in the community, thus increasing their cost of living. However, contributions of tourism to a country’s economic benefits is relative to factors such as the availability of facilities and resources, the country’s social and political stability, the host communities’ behavior towards tourist and the amount of investment injected by the government into tourism projects and development (Youell, 1998).

Environmental Impacts

The relationship between tourism and the physical environment, natural or man-made, is firmly interlinked and complicated. Controversial debates of tourism and the environment have been going on in determining whether they are “friends or foes”. The physical environment is an important aspect of tourism; it ensures the sustainability of attracting tourism in the long run. In fact, it is impossible to define the different types of tourism without the inclusion of the environment (Safakli, n.d). A tourist’s decision to travel and the duration of stay depends on the physical environment of the destination. According to Olali (2000), the estimation given by academics states that in the next 100 years, the environment will be the only option that will determine the demand of tourism. The environmental impacts of tourism can be categorised into two categories which are postive and negative impacts, and finding a balanced relationship with the environment is uncommon, if not, there is hardly a balanced relationship (Holden, 2000).

The negative impacts of tourism on the environment caused by the increased in tourist visitations are visible through the changes, damages and depletion of natural resources, causing the destruction of wildlife habitat, improper waste disposal, air and water pollutions, and also erosion of the natural landscape such as the mountains and historical sites (e.g.: Youell, 1998; Holden, 2000; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2001; Wall and Mathieson, 2006). The lack of facilities and space to accommodate the increase in tourist visitations results in the overcrowding and the over usage of an environment, therefore also increasing improper waste disposal, loss of significant attractions and unethical behaviors’ due to the lack of supervision over the large number of visitors. The detrimental state of the environment will then lose its beauty and attractiveness to these tourists therefore causing a decline in tourist visitations.

Despite of the attention on the negative impacts of tourism on the environment, there are still positive impacts of tourism that benefits the environment. Contradictory to the cause of degradation of these natural resources, the motivating factor behind a tourist’s decision to travel to these places are based on the sentimental attachment they have with the environments (Kreag, 2001). And because these environments are what attracted tourists visits in the first place, preservation efforts are heighened to keep them well managed, and protected from further deterioration. The positive environmental impacts of tourism are sometimes associated to the ‘economic value’ of tourism earned revenue (Holden, 2000). The increase of tourism travel to a destination also increases the tourism funds flowing into the country’s economy. This additional funds allows governments to use the added revenue from its tourist industry to implement measures into proper management and invest in the restoration of the environment such as construction of new roads to accommodate overcrowding of vehicles, building and upgrading facilities to attract or accommodate the influx of visitors and installing modern technologies into the conservation and preservation of sensitive areas (e.g.: UNEP, 2001; Kreag, 2001). And as tourism travel increases, the impacts on the environment are also increasing. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for government agencies and tourism organizations to focus on the preservation and conservation of the environment.

When the environment is restored to its original state or even better, the flow of visitors into the destination will resume once again. However if there is a lack of proper management or close facilitation of the situation, the environment will eventually return back to its damaged state. The attempt to balance the positive and negative aspects of the impacts of tourism on the environment tends go round a vicious cycle. This is where the importance of strategic planning intervenes and it is a crucial part of sustainable tourism of a destination.

Socio-cultural Impacts

The inclusion of social impact studies is an essential criterion for any tourism industry and tourism government agencies planning for a sustainable tourism industry as it provides an insight of the support for tourism development within host communities (e.g.: Nyaupane and Thapa, 2006; Zhang et al., 2006; Tovar and Lockwood, 2008; Deery, Jago and Fredline, 2011). Social cultural impacts on a destination’s society such as traditions, identity, lifestyle, values and customs, are the results of the direct and indirect interactions between the host communities, the tourists and the tourism industry. These impacts of tourism development on the local society are identified through the evaluation of residents’ perceptions and behaviors towards tourism (Tovar and Lockwood, 2008). Regardless of the magnitude of the fluctuations of tourism demand, the impact on the host community will not only be dependent on the number of tourist arrivals but the type of tourist (Holloway, 2002). Of which, these impacts can either have a positive or negative influence on the society.

Firstly, improvements of infrastructures resulted from tourism development such as clean water and stable telecommunications, improved transportation and banking services, and new business investments are positive impacts that contributes in enriching the local communities way of life (http://www.gawler.sa.gov.au). Tourism also helps in boosting the quality of life in the society and provides opportunities for locals to experience cultural exchange and interactions with the rest of the world. The accumulative experience gained from engaging in the cultural exchange with visitors enhances the host communities ability to interact comfortably and confidently with future potential visitors in the long run. Having an influx of tourist arrivals to a destination can also encourage the preservation and conservation of cultural values and traditional customs which are in danger of losing its identity. The increased interest of tourists into the culture and traditions of the local society also helps to push the demand for historical and cultural education and local tourism agencies will be pressured to step up on preservation and conservation of possible endangered ancient sites, monuments or artifacts (Kreag, 2001).

Despite of the positive and inspiring socio-cultural impacts of tourism on a host environment, the negative impacts of tourism, on the other hand, can equally cause a prominent damage on a culture. Ironically, instead of riviving a lost culture, the continuous development of tourism driven by the influx of tourist demand can very well cause the same cultural identity and value of the host communities to change and this issue has raised concerns amongst tourism organizations. This normally happens when local communites conformed to the needs, wants and desires of tourist’s expectations in the bid to respond to their growing demands. As such, this conformity leads to the commercialization of local culture into a commodity and the modification of traditional art and craft forms, resulting it to become “reconstructed ethnicity” which might end up causing the eradication of cultural goods (www.coastlearn.org).

One of the negative aspect on the social status of a culture is the social differences between the host and the tourists. According to Mathieson and Wall (2006), more often than not, social tensions between host communities and tourists happens in developing countries whereby the tourist market are from a country with higher foreign currency rate than the host communities and thus unintentionally highlighting the disparity of wealth. They also mentioned that since the nature of tourism involves the movement of people around geographical locations, social conflicts occur as a result of differences in cultures, values, lifestyles and languages.

TOURISM AND HERITAGE

Defining Heritage in Tourism

With the growth of the tourism sector, the types of tourist are also diversified and the collection of individual experiences of these tourists influence the different types of tourism offered today, thus the formation of the different types of tourism (Timothy and Boyd, 2003). Heritage tourism has been one of the oldest forms of tourism offered since the early ages, however in recent years, it has grown to popularity in the industry. It is the inheritance of the unrepeatable products of life from the past that is worth preserving for the benefits admiration and education of the current and future generations (e.g.: Nurick, 2000; Timothy and Boyd, 2003; Sethi, 2005; National Trust, 2011). Heritage could be anything that is tangible or intangible left behind by the past such as archaeological or historical sites that have been preserved, natural landscapes which are of a destination’s significance, artifacts and documents, culture, values and sometimes even the people of the past such as the indigenous people. However over the years, heritage has been modified and commercialized to suit tourists demand and expectations, allowing it to be more accessible, attractive, educational and entertaining (Fyall and Rakic, 2006). Heritage itself as a concept has entered on to a global stage and penetrated into the local, regional and national arena (Burnett, 2001). The World Tourism Organization (WTO) states that heritage and culture have become an important element in almost 40 per cent of all international trips taken and despite of recession, heritage tourism still continued to grow (Hanna, 1993, cited in Timothy and Boyd, 2003). The different types of heritage attractions offered now are varse and wide, examples includes natural history attractions, religious attractions, sociocultural attractions, art galaries, ancestral dwellings, and genocide monuments.

Fyall and Rakic (2006) adds that the demand for ‘heritage based’ tourism has been on the rise because Lowenthal (1979) states that people’s sentimental reminensce of the past is deeply affected by the parallel ongoing eradication of historical antiquities while on the other hand, Hannabuss (1999) also claims that heritage enthusiasts are immersing themsevles in heritage for the purpose of finding a rational explanation for their post-modern lives. With the controversial issues happening in everyday life, it is no wonder that heritage behaves as a touchstone in reminding people the primary essence of life. Hence, an attempt to understand the demand of heritage tourism could best be determined by initiating a study on visitor psychographic characteristics as these visitors are the primary factors pushing the demand for heritage tourism. Determining the visitor demographics can also aid in better planning and management of visitor capacity control in relation to preservation and conservation of the heritage sites which will be discussed further in the next section.

According to Hall and McArthur (1993a, as cited in Timothy and Boyd, 2003), the significance of heritage can be categorised into four different areas in relation to its economic, social, political and scientific significance. The economic significance of heritage refers to the value of the heritage to visitors, in terms of the amount of revenue earned from visitations to the sites. The social significance refers to the personal identification that individuals have to associate themselves with ‘their’ heritage. In terms of its political significance, the representations of heritage can behave as an aid in managing political issues due to its political nature behind its existance. Finally, heritage educates visitors on its history, culture and the population of a destination. It also acts as a benchmark for ecological studies on the environments and ecosystems, therefore presenting itself as a scientific significance to the people (ibid.).

Impacts of Tourism on Heritage

Through the globalization and increasing competiveness of the tourism industry, governments, tourism organizations and agencies are continuously pushed into the whirlpool of sustainable tourism development. Bramwell and Lane (1993) states that sustainable tourism development can be implemented if the balance of the economic, environmental and social aspects of the development is realised.

It is certain that every country in the world will definitely have a heritage background attached to them, however, what makes heritage tourism in a country unique is the exclusiveness of the actual heritage product itself. The characteristics and uniqueness of that particular heritage product dictates the different types of visitors and the demand of heritage tourism in the destination.

With tourism, comes impacts. As mentioned in earlier sections, tourism impacts the economy, environment and the socialcultural aspects of a destination. Likewise, heritage tourism being categorised into the four different aspects of significance, will therefore impact the economy, evironment and socialcultural aspects of a destination. An influx of tourist visitations can positively or negatively affect the destination in many aspects. Prosperity of the economy, job creations, improved quality of life are some of the positive impacts whilst seasonal unemployment, social tensions, pollution of the environment are some of the negative impacts. However when it comes to heritage, tourism is known to be impacting the environmental and sociocultural aspect of the destination more often than the economical aspect, unless otherwise, the country’s tourism economy is highly dependent on heritage tourism. Tourism is known to have an intitmate relationship with the matters of heritage conservation and preservation; a significant element in deciding the survival of a country’s heritage

Hence, the impacts caused by tourism on heritage sites are in ways similar to that of a natural environment (pollution, lost of habitat, lost of attractiveness), however, the results and repercussions are amplified due to the uniqueness of the heritage enviroment that can never have an exact replica elsewhere in the world.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Heritage Sites in Egypt

Demand of Tourism in Egypt

IMPACTS OF TOURISM ON HERITAGE IN EGYPT

Politcal Issues in Egypt

CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS

GROWTH OF TOURISM IN EGYPT

Tourism and Heritage in Egypt

The term “history” can be best epitomized by the ancient Egyptian civilization than to any other ancient culture (Grimal, 1994). Egypt is probably the world’s oldest civilization from the Nile Valley since the 3,100 BC and is reputable for it’s extensive collection of historical record on civilization and the immense wealth of knowledge (SIS, 2011). Five thousand years ago, a glimpse start of Egypts’s tourism began with the start of cruising (Goeldner, Ritchie and McIntosh, 2000). Queen Hatshepsut’s first cruise journey is recorded on the walls of the Temple of Deit El Bahari in Luxor, where it states that the purpose of cruising at that era was for peace and tourism (ibid.).

However the genesis of heritage tourism in Egypt could mainly be attributed by the smart and innovative grandeur infrastructure of the Pharaonic burial tombs such as the Sphinx and the other ancient Egyptian pyramids, which saw the first early arrivals of tourists. The start of tourism playing as a core role in the economy of Egypt came with the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 and after being announced by Khedive (Viceroy) Ismail that Egypt was to be part of Europe (www.thelonelyplanet.com). The Nile, Luxor, the ancient Pyramids of Giza and temples are what defines Egypt as a heritage destination.

Egypt’s ancient civilization is an evidence of the evolution of mankind from the prehistoric days till the present. The rich history of Egypt acts as a connection to the distant past of humanity, which reveals mankind’s greatest glories and achievements.

Current Status of Egypt’s Tourism Industry

Tourism in Egypt is a huge lucrative business that has flourish and become a major component in the economic development. Millions of tourists are travelling to Egypt each year, for the purpose of appreciating the abundance of the natural and historical phenomenon within the country (www.greenstarhotel.net). In 1995, international vis