SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (23 July 2005) -- The car bombs that killed at least 83 people on Egypt's Red Sea coast overnight had an immediate impact on tourism today as European travellers cancelled trips to the popular destination. Some already in Sharm el-Sheikh, the beach and scuba diving resort at the centre of the carnage, left early for home. But others vowed to go ahead with their holidays, saying they could not avoid terrorism wherever they were. Egyptians and foreigners in the tourism industry, the country's biggest private sector employer, said it could take longer to recover than it did from the massacre of 58 foreign tourists at a temple in the southern town of Luxor in 1997. ''The strikes on Luxor affected us ... so when it's in the heart of Sharm God only knows what will happen,'' taxi driver Mohamed Mustafa said as he surveyed the damage caused by one of the bombs in a car park. ''It is what we always feared,'' said Eveline Bracher, a Swiss who has worked in the Sharm el-Sheikh diving industry for 13 years. ''We always had the impression that Sharm el-Sheikh was a secure place. But we have been proved wrong,'' she said. Italian charter planes to Sharm flew out of Rome nearly empty today morning. One Air One flight from Rome's Fiumicino airport was typical -- of 150 passengers booked to fly, only nine turned up, airport officials said. | | At least 88 people are dead and hundreds injured after Al-Qaeda linked terrorists bombed Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular Red Sea scuba diving destination in Egypt. Marilena and Gaetano, a young Sicilian couple on their honeymoon, were among dozens who arrived at Rome airports for early morning flights only to hear about the explosions. ''We're not going. Our tour operator said we were supposed to stay about half an hour from the attacks but I don't want to be there. What kind of atmosphere would that be for our honeymoon?'' said Marilena, who declined to give her surname. |
