Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Avast new museum just outside Cairo in Egypt was inaugurated recently, raising hopes of reviving the tourism industry hampered for more than a decade by internal upheaval, a pandemic and regional conflicts. Officials believe the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, alone could draw as many as 7 million additional visitors annually, helping boost total visitors to around 30 million by 2030.
Overlooking the Giza Pyramids, the 500,000-square-meter edifice will house tens of thousands of artefacts, including what is billed as the complete collection of the treasures of the boy-king Tutankhamun, many displayed for the first time.
The new space includes immersive exhibits and virtual-reality devices, in contrast to cluttered, old-fashioned displays in the older Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. Egypt, which has needed repeated bailouts to stabilise its economy, uses the foreign currency it collects from tourism to pay for crucial imports such as fuel and wheat.
Last year, the country drew 15.7 million visitors who spent a record $15 billion, according to official figures. Tourism had collapsed to a low of $3.8 billion in 2015-16, the victim of extended political turmoil after Egypt’s 2011 uprising.
However, factors including fraying infrastructure, poor planning and security restrictions have held back the tourism sector’s potential. Even with the recent recovery, Egypt trails regional rival Turkey, which said it had more than 50 million international visitors last year, bringing in over $60 billion. Designed by the Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects, the museum, known as GEM, boasts a towering, triangular glass façade imitating the nearby pyramids.
