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On September 27th, Aswan, Egypt will play host to World Tourism Day 2011 under the theme: Tourism – Linking Cultures. It is precisely this interaction between the peoples and cultures of the world, driven by tourism, which is at the heart of this year’s event.

Aswan will offer delegates and visitors a host of impressive sights and attractions, such as Abu Simbel, the Aswan Dam, Lake Nasser, nearby Luxor and, of course, Nile Cruises.

Talks by senior tourism officials will examine how the tourism industry is meeting the UN World Tourism Organization’s goals on responsible tourism.

This autumn will also see the re-opening of Aswan’s iconic Old Cataract Hotel on the banks of the Nile.

Breaking Travel News

A team from Yale University, the University of Bologna and the Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg, Belgium, has completed the first epigraphic and digital record of a site on the west bank of the Nile, north of Aswan discovered nearly half a century ago by the famous Egyptian Egyptologist Labib Habachi. This new and thorough study has brought to light a previously unknown Early Dynastic cycle of royal images and an early hieroglyphic inscription.

This group of images and the short inscription—carved around 3200 BC, at the dawn of the dynastic period, record the earliest depiction of a royal Jubilee: an Egyptian ruler wearing a recognizable crown of Egypt; “the following of Horus”; and the royal court as known it is known to have been in Early Dynastic accounts.

The scenes show the emergence of the ruler as the supreme human priest the manifestation of both human power and the divine incarnate. The Nag El-Hamdulab cycle is the last of the old nautical Jubilee cycles of the Predynastic Period, and the first of the pharaonic cycles over which the king presides in full regalia, wearing the oldest form of the White Crown. It is also the first such image with a hieroglyphic annotation. That text refers to a vessel of the “Following,” probably the “Following of Horus,” and may therefore be the earliest record of tax collection we have from Egypt, and the first expression of royal economic control over Egypt and most probably also Nubia.

The cycle of images probably dates back to about 3200 BCE, corresponding to the late Naqada period, from the time between King Scorpion (the owner of tomb Uj at Abydos), first king of Dynasty 0, and Narmer, first ruler of Dynasty 1.

Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Ahram Online

Sources close to Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana say the ministry has approved licenses for 19 new floating hotels to operate on Lake Nasser, bringing the total to 25. The ministry has also agreed to build a new marina to replace the makeshift dock currently used to berth cruise ships. The price tag on the new facility is estimated at LE25 million.

Ahmed Attiya, head of the Hotels Sector at the Ministry of Tourism, says the cruise ship expansion could generate up to LE950 million in direct investment and create thousands of jobs.

Critics have called on the Ministry of Tourism to drop the expansion plan, warning of “catastrophic” environmental consequences if the number of floating hotels on the lake increases. Some of the most vocal opposition has come from within the ministry itself.

Mahmoud al-Qaissouni, environmental advisor to the tourism minister sees the decision to license more floating hotels on the lake as a reckless tourism strategy. In the short-term, the new ships will cannibalize business from the existing ones; in the long-term, they will lead to overcrowding at the lake’s antiquity sites.

He argues that instead of expanding boat traffic on the lake, the government should focus on developing sustainable use of Lake Nasser as a strategic water resource. Efforts should be made to enforce strict environmental controls on the six floating hotels, 4,000 fishing boats and two passenger ferries that currently operate on the lake. It might also be time to think seriously about incorporating Egypt’s main water reservoir–the source of over 80 percent of the country’s freshwater supply–into a natural protectorate.

Excerpted from an article by Cam McGrath for Al Masry Al Youm

Photo www.palmseedlings.info

Environmentalists say urgent action is needed to protect the argun palm (Medemia argun), listed as critically endangered on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.

Archaeologists first learned of the argun palm from ancient Egyptian texts, and its dried fruits were frequently found among the gold and offerings recovered from pharaonic tombs. But it was long assumed that the prized palm had vanished along with the pharaohs.

Comprehensive surveys over the last two decades have revealed 30 individual argun palms in Egypt, and several hundred living in northern Sudan.

The main population of argun palms in Sudan is at risk of overexploitation by local tribes, who use the palm’s fronds to weave rope, mats and baskets. In Egypt, the species is threatened by drought and increasing human activity.

The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency is now studying a proposal to include the country’s main population of the argun palm within a protectorate that would cover between 6,000 and 8,000 square kilometers, encompassing Dungul Oasis and nearby Kurkur Oasis.

Efforts are also under way to conserve the argun palm through an ex-situ nursery program established in 2003 at South Valley University’s conservation garden near Aswan.

Excerpted from an article by Cam McGrath for ISP

Eight American tourists — six women and two men — were killed in a traffic accident Sunday while on a tour bus in Aswan, Egypt.

An additional 19 American tourists and two Egyptians — the bus driver and a tour guide — were injured.

A total of 116 American tourists were traveling in three tour buses. The  middle bus — carrying 37 of the tourists — crashed into a parked dump truck loaded with sand.

CNN

State-owned Egyptian General Company for Tourism and Hotels (EGOTH) is grouping its most historic properties together under the brand “Historic Hotels of Egypt”.

The following hotels will have seen a total investment of $368 million by the end of 2013:

The Shepheard Hotel in Cairo, founded in 1841

The Old Cataract in Aswan, built in 1899

The Nile Ritz Carlton Cairo, one of the city’s top hotels since the 1950s

Luxor Hotel

Mena House Oberoi, located at the foot of the Great Pyramid

Marriott Hotel in Cairo

The Palestine Hotel in Alexandria

Cecil Hotel in Luxor

Winter Palace in Luxor, built in 1886

Under the renovation plans, the hotels will have upgraded meeting and conference facilities, as well as the latest technology, including wifi internet access and flatscreen televisions.

ABTN

The waters of the Nile in Aswan are suffering due to the dumping of waste from fishing boats and river transport between Egypt and Sudan. Such boats produce a type of bacteria which is difficult to eradicate because of the stagnancy of the water.

The poor operation and maintenance of tourist boats and ferries in Lake Nasser behind the High Dam lake is of particular concern, as well as the lack of safety procedures, said official sources in the ministry of transportation.

A comprehensive report on boats and cruise ships, including floating hotels, warned that the six cruise ships which transport tourists from Lake Nasser to Abu Simbel, have many issues with lack of safety procedures, due to absence of modern communication methods.

The Egyptian Organization for the Advancement of Children reiterated the conclusions of the Habi Center for Environmental Rights in its report on the pollution of the Nile waters.  The studies confirm that every year some 17,000 children die from gastroenteritis caused by polluted water.

The same study indicated that kidney failure, also caused by polluted drinking water, is four times higher in Egypt than in the rest of the world. It notes that there are some three hundred floating hotels between Luxor and Aswan which are responsible for the pollution of the river water, due to their lack of efficient water treatment systems.

Al-Masry Al-Youm

A barge carrying 244 tons of gasoline has leaked some 100 tons of the fuel into the Nile River in Upper Egypt.

The vessel was docked in Aswan when part of the barge sank below the surface and began spewing gasoline into the river. The leak has since been stopped.

The chief of the Luxor drinking water company urged people to stockpile water in case the spill reaches the city’s water purification facilities.

AP

An ambitious $100 million canal project to bring water from the Nile river to the Toshka desert 225 km south of Aswan in Egypt to convert arid regions into farmland and boost animal production has been completed.

The Sheikh Zayed Canal project, funded by the Abu Dhabi government, is part of a bigger human settlement plan that aims to construct all modern civic amenities in the desert.

The grant was mainly used in the construction of the canal, three irrigation stations and development of farmland.

The canal has a capacity to irrigate about 100,000 acres within the integrated irrigation system envisaged for the development of the southern valley covering over 24 km.

As part of the larger project, farms, irrigation and road network, agricultural facilities and buildings, laboratories, factories and other amenities will be built.

News-Views

A 29-year-old Belgian tourist is in a serious condition in hospital after he was attacked with a knife by an Egyptian man in the city of Aswan.

The German Press Agency dpa reported that the attacker had been a lecturer at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and was known to have psychological problems. Police ruled out that he was a member of a terrorist organization.

Local people overpowered the attacker, and brought him to the authorities.

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