CAIRO â?? The suicide bombing of a tourist bus in the Sinai Peninsula indicates that a growing Islamist insurgency is spreading to “soft” targets and may do more damage to Egypt’s already struggling tourism industry.
The bomber boarded the bus as it stopped at an Egypt-Israel border crossing and an explosion immediately followed, killing three South Korean tourists and the Egyptian driver, the Interior Ministry said.
“It’s a very bad blow to any efforts to re-attract tourists again,” said Mazen Hassan, an assistant professor at Cairo University. “This will definitely affect â?? at least in the short term â?? the flow of tourists back to the country.”
Over the past three years, many would-be tourists have stayed away from ongoing political unrest that began with the uprising against dictator Hosni Mubarak and since led to killings in Egypt’s streets, ongoing protests and bomb blasts that as recently as last month hit the capital.
The tourism industry’s decline led to a drop in foreign currency reserves and loss of jobs, while overall unrest led to investments plummeting.
Sunday’s attack “adds to the problems that the Egyptian economy is facing in general, not just the tourism sector,” Hassan said.
And it comes amid government attempts to restore political
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