Cultural Property and Tourism

The Committee for Cultural Policy's Kate Fitz Gibbon writes ("Mummies Are Not Enough. Why Doesn’t Egypt Get it?" May 13, 2017) of the futility of raghead nations like Sisi's Egypt and Erdogan's Turkey expecting cultural property to brng new life to their flagging tourist industries.

Archaeological discoveries and grandiose museums are very nice, and represent success in a limited cultural sphere, but if your tourist industry relies on US or European visitors, no amount of hype about mummies is going to outweigh their fears about safety – or their distaste for brutal dictatorships. International public perception of a nation as tolerant and peaceful outweighs any amount of cultural hype about the ancient past.

Another factor she identifies in the decline in visitor numbers to these countries is perceived hostility regarding sharing Egyptian culture with foreign nations

Nonetheless, Egypt’s current administration seems to feel that its tourist prospects will improve if the only place to see ancient Egyptian artifacts is in Egypt itself.