Adel Abdul Latif supported his family making the Pharaonic alabaster figurines that vendors hawk at the temples around Luxor. He also worked in construction, which depended on the prosperity of the local hoteliers and other businesspeople who hired him.

Then the tourists stopped coming.

This winter there was so little work — during what had been the high season for tourism in Luxor — that the family had to rely on cash handouts and free blankets from a local charity staggering from its own financial woes.

For Egyptians taking nervous note of the country’s mounting calamities, with security ebbing and prices rising, the sustained drop-off in tourism has been especially alarming. Tourism provides direct jobs for nearly three million people, critical income to more than 70 industries and 20 percent of the state’s foreign currency — now desperately needed to prop up the plummeting Egyptian pound.

The changes to Egypt’s complexion have been just as startling, as coveted tourism destinations have become bargain stops, celebrated temples have emptied and residents have directed their anger at the capital, Cairo, the site of the interminable political squabbles and street violence that have kept the tourists away.

“We are the ones that suffer,” said Ezzat Saad, the governor of Luxor, where in better times tourists relax on Nile cruises or stroll through the Great Hypostyle Hall at the nearby Temple of Karnak. These days, on the streets below the governor’s office, idle workers spend much of their time talking about the failings of the government.   “Whatever I do on the local level,” Mr. Saad said, “whatever the minister of tourism does, it has a ceiling. We will never get back what was without political stability or security.”

Tourism plummeted in 2011 with the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the unrest that followed. Some tourists have started to return, but officials say they are mostly beachgoers rather than the more lucrative cultural tourists who spend 10 days or more in Egypt, and spend accordingly during once-in-a-lifetime vacations.

Every headline about a riot in Egypt deepens the crisis. Cairo has been the hardest hit, with hotel occupancy falling to below 15 percent or worse in parts of the city closest to protests, according to Hani el-Shaer of the Egyptian Hotel Association. From Cairo, the hardship ripples across the country, affecting taxi and horse carriage drivers, boat operators, tour guides and store vendors.

“If something goes wrong in Cairo, tourists cancel the whole trip,” said Hisham Zaazou, Egypt’s minister of tourism.

Officials have thrown up their hands at a problem that no amount of salesmanship seems able to fix. They have already been forced to abandon the grand marketing campaigns of the past; there is little money for advertisements, and in any case, a slick television commercial for Egypt would be useless, if followed by a news report on the latest bloodshed, officials said.

“The perception is that they’re not welcome,” Mr. Zaazou said. “That the Egyptian people are hostile. I need to change this.”

So the country’s promoters are focusing on what they say are inflated fears about Egypt’s safety, which they are countering with a limited effort to portray “the reality,” Mr. Zaazou said. One plan is to stream live video of Egypt over the Internet — of beaches and tourist attractions like the Egyptian Museum — to show that all is well in many of Egypt’s most treasured spaces.

It is an approach that Mexico has tried as well in its effort to draw attention to the distances, sometimes vast and sometimes not, between a prime beach or plaza and headline-grabbing, drug-related slaughter.

“We want to give assurances that Egypt is not just a square kilometer where there are disturbances,” said Nasser Hamdy, the head of the Egyptian Tourism Authority.

Asmaa El-Zohairy contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/world/middleeast/egyptians-struggle-as-wary-tourists-stay-away.html?partner=rss&emc=rss