Magdy Samaan, Egypt to open museum at Cairo airport to boost tourism, The Telegraph, 3 December 2015
Egypt to open a new museum at Cairo International Airport holding 38 pieces from Egypt’s various historical periods in bid to boost transit tourism
Egypt will open a museum inside Cairo airport next Monday in an attempt to attract tourists in transit.
Located inside Terminal 3, the exhibition will contain 39 pieces, including ones from the Pharonic, Coptic and Islamic eras, according to officials.
“It aims to give visitors a general idea about the Egyptian civilisation, which will make them want to visit other places in Cairo, like the Egyptian museum,” said Yasmin al-Shazle, an assistant to Egypt’s minister for museum antiquities.
The Seated Scribe, one of the most famous monuments in Egyptian history, is one of at least 21 items in the exhibition that have come from the world-famous Egyptian museum in central Cairo.
The airport museum was due to open on October 31, the day that Isil militants brought down a Russian passenger jet as it left Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. Britain and Russian have since suspended all flights to the resort.
The disaster dealt a heavy blow to a once-strong Egyptian tourist trade that had already been devastated by the political unrest that followed Egypt’s so-called Arab Spring in 2011.
The number of tourists visiting Egypt has fallen from about 14.7 million in 2010 to around 10 million this year, according to Egyptian tourism ministry figures.
See also: Cailey Rizzo, Museum at Cairo airport is Egypt’s latest attempt to resurrect tourism, Mashable Australia, 4 December 2015
