J.1_USAID_Investments.docx

J.1 USAID Investments in Cultural Heritage Preservation and Cultural Tourism Development

Since 1995, USAID has provided assistance valued at over $100 million to protect, conserve, and restore Egypt’s cultural heritage assets, including monuments and masterpieces from prehistoric times to the late Ottoman period.

In Luxor, where 1.9 million tourists visited cultural heritage sites in 2015, USAID has invested nearly 207 million Egyptian pounds (EGP) in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor Temple, the Carter House, Medinet Habu, the Theban Tombs, Karnak Temple and Mut Temple, as well as in the installation of groundwater lowering systems around the temples of Luxor and Karnak on the East Bank, and a system serving sites on the West Bank of the Nile.

In Historic Cairo, where 3.7 million tourists visited cultural heritage sites in 2015, USAID has invested EGP 172 million in Bab Zuwayla, Saleh Tali’i Mosque, Zawiya Sabil Farag Ibn Baruq, Bayt Al Razzaz, Sabil Kuttab Nafisa al Bayda, Façade of Wikalet Nafisa al Bayda, Aslam al-Silahdar Mosque, the Museum of Islamic Art, Sabil Mohammad Ali Pasha, Medieval House in Bab al Wazir, and the installation of groundwater lowering systems in Old Cairo.

Many of Egypt’s cultural treasures in the Nile Valley are threatened by rising groundwater. USAID has funded the design and construction of large-scale engineering systems to lower groundwater levels at the Sphinx and the Giza Plateau, Coptic Cairo and the Bab Zuweila, Karnak and Luxor Temples, Edfu Temple, and the major temple sites of Medinat Habu, Amenhotep, the Ramesseum, and Seti I on Luxor’s West Bank, and more recently the temple of Kom Ombo and the Catacombs in Alexandria.

Current and recent USAID-funded conservation and restoration activities through cooperative agreements with the American Research Center in Egypt, the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago and Ancient Research Associates of Egypt (AERA), have focused on significant monuments representing key elements of Egypt’s cultural heritage, including the Pharaonic civilization in Luxor and Memphis and Late Antique Christianity in the Nile Valley in Sohag. In addition to preserving some of Egypt’s most important cultural treasures, these projects have improved the capacity and technical skills of archaeologists and conservators to ensure sustainability, emphasized heritage awareness and education as critical elements of heritage management, and worked collaboratively with Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities to better protect and manage these historic sites for future generations. In addition, these projects have provided training and employment opportunities for semi-skilled workers from local populations.

Through another cooperative agreement with Takween Integrated Community Development, USAID/Egypt is implementing and promoting a tourism development approach in Esna that strikes a balance between cultural heritage conservation, tourism, and local development needs. That project shall enhance the tourist experience and increase local economic benefits through the conservation of some of Esna’s most architecturally important structures, the creation of tourism-related jobs and more inclusive planning, management and promotion of Esna as a cultural heritage tourism destination.

Through a cooperative agreement with the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association, USAID/Egypt has worked to promote sustainable tourism development and improved natural resource management on Egypt’s Red Sea Coast. This project improved the livelihoods of low-income people through income-generating activities that showcase the region’s cultural and natural heritage.

Resources for further details on USAID and other funded activities:

1) Books:

a) “Preserving Egypt’s Cultural Heritage – The conservation work of the American Research Center in Egypt 1995 - 2005”; Edited by Randi Danforth; the American University in Cairo, 2010.

b) “Cairo, Renewing the Historic City – The Agh Khan Historic Cities Programme”; Edited by Philip Jodidio; PRESTEL.

c) “The Monuments of Historic Cairo, a Map and Descriptive Catalogue”; Nicholas Warner; the American University in Cairo Press, 2005

d) Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha and His Sabil, Agnieszka Dobrowolska and Khaled Fahmy; The American University in Cairo – New York, 2004.

e) “Art of Empire – The Roman Frescoes and Imperial Cult Chamber in Luxor Temple”; Edited by Michael Jones and Susanna McFadden, 2015, ARCE and Yale Press.

f) “The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt”; edited by Elizabeth S. Bolman; Yale Press, 2016

Online Resources:

· http://www.antiquities.gov.eg & www.egypt.travel/

· https://www.facebook.com/moantiquities/ & https://www.facebook.com/MinistryofTourismEG/

· https://www.arce.org/ & http://archive.arce.org/

· http://www.aeraweb.org/field-school-program/ & http://memphisegypt.org/

· http://www.egyptologyforum.org/MOA/MOA.html

· https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epigraphic-survey

DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN TOURISM

Egypt offers unparalleled cultural tourism opportunities and possesses advantages as a tourism destination including unique cultural heritage assets, a conducive climate (particularly during the winter months), a diverse culture and history, and a welcoming population. The travel and tourism sector is already an important part of Egypt’s economy because of its contribution to Egyptian GDP, employment, and foreign currency revenues. At its peak in 2010, 14.7 million foreign tourists visited Egypt, generating nearly $12.5 billion, constituting more than 11% of GDP and 14.4% of foreign exchange earnings, and employing approximately 12% of Egypt’s workforce. In the three-year period leading up to the 2011 revolution, Egypt was experiencing its highest growth rates ever for the sector, as tourism receipts increased 30% from 2007 to 2010.

The Egyptian tourism industry is largely labor-intensive, providing employment for many people. Tourism provides employment opportunities not only for well-trained professionals, but also a large number of workers who have difficulty finding employment elsewhere, such as new entrants to the labor force, migrants and workers with few qualifications. The travel and tourism industry enhances social well-being across a lengthy value chain and overlaps with other productive sectors of the Egyptian economy including agriculture, construction, manufacturing, the food industry, and aviation. Makary and Ragab (2008) estimate that each Egyptian pound invested in the travel and tourism sector yields EGP 2.27 in value (compared to 1.95 for the rest of the economy) and $0.75 in foreign exchange earnings (compared to $0.07 for the rest of the economy). The tourism and travel sector is making a rebound from a low of 5.4 million tourists in 2015 to almost 11 million visitors in 2018. In particular, cultural heritage tourism is a tourism modality that capitalizes on cultural richness and complexity and can generate higher than average local returns due to the higher purchasing power and spending patterns that its participants typically possess (Csapo, 2012; Zadel and Bogdan, 2013).

Egypt’s tourism industry has the potential for increased growth relative to the past and could be a driver of economic recovery and employment, which will lead to poverty reduction. In general, tourism is vulnerable to terrorism and other security-related shocks, but has proven its resiliency by recovering surprisingly quickly after a number of crises in 2014 and 2015.

Despite Egypt’s advantages, the travel and tourism sector underperforms and fails to achieve its potential as a driver of economic recovery. Egypt ranks only 74th (out of 136) in the 2017 World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index. Egypt’s low ranking in the index reflects a number of challenges as reflected in low global rankings:

· 93rd for tourism infrastructure;

· 102nd for human resources and labor markets;

· 78th for business environment;

· 102nd for international openness; and

· 56th for intangible heritage.

The above suggests that Egypt hasn’t sufficiently leveraged its cultural heritage assets. While Egypt possesses tremendous cultural tourism potential, it faces significant challenges in the tourism-related business environment, which this activity can begin to address. On the positive side, Egypt advanced nine positions in the overall rankings in the past two years, mainly due to significant upgrades to cultural resources and allocation of additional resources to the travel and tourism sector (WTTC Report 2017). The country has established the conditions that will enable it to resume the growth that almost doubled the size of the sector from 2000 to 2010. The main drivers of Egypt’s performance have been greater government support of the travel and tourism sector (37th, up 32 places) - including the allocation of an impressive 6.8% of the total budget (22nd place) to the sector - as well as the strengthening of cultural resources (22nd, up 19 places) to rebuild the country’s image. At the same time, an increased digital presence has led to growth in demand for the country’s popular cultural resources. Egypt also continues to be one of the world’s most price-competitive destinations (2nd place) and has eased its visa policy substantially (51st place).

Giving these rankings and as the World Economic Forum points out, Egypt needs to rethink its competitive position and prepare for short-and long-term demand shocks and shifts in traveler flow. A narrow focus on attracting the maximum number of budget tourists drove strong growth at one point, but this strategy produced extensive risks, notably an oversupply of hotels, environmental exploitation and unhealthy investment bubbles. Egypt must continue to increase its focus on policies that drive stable inbound tourism growth. As noted above, cultural tourists generally have higher incomes and consume more domestic services, as their activities use multiple hotels, tour guides, and domestic transport and also interact more directly with local Egyptians. However, policymakers and tourism industry leaders need to take advantage of Egypt’s competitive advantage and identify and leverage capabilities that make Egyptian destinations unique. Egypt needs to do a better job of “site bundling” or promoting multi-destination tourism that provides the more complete “Egypt experience” that visitors seek. The key driver to increase Egypt’s revenues from tourism is to better segment the market for lower value beach tourism and higher value forms of tourism (including cultural tourism) in order to capture an increasing share of both. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) stated that countries like Egypt “need to ensure their long-term competitiveness with a consistent sustainability perspective. This includes the expansion of touristic services from mass market to additional high-yield segments.” The WTO’s recommendations to policy makers in emerging markets such as Egypt include: (a) build up demand-response capabilities based on close cooperation between the public and private sectors; (b) reduce access barriers and implement an open market environment; (c) redirect destination marketing to diversify source markets; and (d) foster local initiatives and entrepreneurship to promote domestic tourism.