CAIRO, June 20 — Pyramids, Tutankhamun masks, Nefertiti busts — Egypt’s souvenir-makers are pinning their hopes on a new lease of economic life, after tourism was battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Yousri hopes that foreign tourists are lured back to Egypt in the latter part of the year, “especially Americans”, with some groups from the US expected in September. In a recent interview with AFP, Tourism Minister Khaled El-Enani welcomed a partial recovery in visitor numbers. On the eastern outskirts of Cairo, a new antique reproduction factory has since March been preparing to capitalise on the much hoped for post-pandemic era.
“When tourists come back, we will be ready,” pledged Ahmed Aboul Gheir, who is also working on the ‘Made in Egypt’ initiative. But the cheaper items created under the initiative also risk crowding out local craftsmen who are unable to produce in such high volumes. In the shadow of the magnificent Giza Pyramids, Eid Yousri manufactures polyester Pharaonic figurines from a humble workshop erected on the roof of his family home.
In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic struck, tourism made up about 12 per cent of Egypt’s GDP. Around 500,000 have flown in monthly since April this year, more than double the number in January and up from an average of just 200,000 tourists per month in 2020. On the other side of town, in the narrow and labyrinthine alleys of Khan el-Khalili in Islamic Cairo, tourist Caroline Bucher is on the hunt for “locally made” products to bring back home to her native Dominican Republic.
The factory, named Konouz , produces furniture, statuettes and paintings that retrace four major periods of Egyptian heritage: Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic.
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