Support the tourism to Egypt

[a_lamonta]

Does anyone know how the latest currency devaluation is affecting tourists? Are prices the same in USD for meals, taxis and trinkets, etc.?

On another note, does anyone know current water temps?

I was there in May 2016 ($1USD = 8.85LE), November 2016($1USD = 13.xxLE), and again May 2017($1USD = 17.95LE)
May over May, the prices are almost identical, maybe a tiny increase, but not nearly enough to cover the exchange rate difference.
I always bring USD and convert as little as possible to LE. I pre-order $1 bills from my bank, so that I can tip in USD. Same for my dive guides etc, all tips are in USD. I figure they will get more by either trading it on the black market, or holding it and converting it later on. Plus I don't get stuck holding LE that will lose value by the time I go back.

Water temps, May = 26 degrees C, Nov about 24C

 

[Schwob]

Was there last summer, have friends who went last winter. Liked it. A lot and not only because it was a good value - which it was. The diving was good to great! Can't wait to go again. Unfortunately, my employer won't see aiding the Egyptian economy as a good enough reason to give me added time off...:-(
Until I / we can go again our hearts are with you. Yeah, I know, that does not really help at all. Hope you all come out of this well in the end. Economically and politically and in terms of stability and security for all.

 

[Sunn]

As far as liveaboard business is concerned, the good ones are still working and very busy.
Daily diving and hotel reservations are probably at less than 20% of the capacity.

Although it should be considered as it is : tourism was representing before 2011 (revolution, arab spring) about 11% of GDP (gross domestic product), employing about 12% of the workforce.
So, the drastic fall of tourism after the revolution is not (from far) the main reason of the economic difficulties in Egypt.
As american, you can refer to The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency for more information, or Egypt - Wikipedia.

Is it a good thing for the egyptian economy ? certainly not. Supporting tourism in Egypt is more a political decision than a security issue.

But remember that the drastic fall of tourism is good for the health of the sealife !

Sorry to say this, but the war in Yemen is good for the sharks and all the security problems in this region of the world with daesh, terrorists and internal muslim fights (salafi, sunni, etc) are good for the coral reefs of the red sea !

(by the way, it's time to see again
)


Preserve the reefs, don't go to Egypt ! Well, in fact, stop diving the red sea !

I hope there won't be too many boats for my next trip in september...he he he...

 

[Philly_Diver]

We dove Sharm in Jan of this year and we had the place to ourselves, when we traveled to Thislegorm, we were the only boat there, and it was amazing. I would agree with the comment about improper tie lines to the wreck, you can see first hand were boats have tied their lines to handrails, the coal cars on the deck, and small stacks. Our boat used the prop shaft, which was excellent, as there was no way it was going to cause damage, and it offer great anchoring for the boat. There has been a great deal of discussion about installing moorings around the wreck, long ago there were concrete moorings, but they were improperly sized, and the current drug them off. The state of the economy is also holding up preservation efforts for the wreck, as no one wants to invest money when there isn't a strong influx of currency. We were there 3 days, and did 3 dives each day on nitrox and with lodging and airfare, my total cost of the trip was less than $750.00 US.