Tourism, Poverty Reduction and the Political Economy: Egyptian Perspectives on Tourism's Economic Benefits in a Semi-Rentier State

Abstract

Tourism's potential as a tool for poverty reduction in developing countries is still part of an endless controversy. This paper argues that one of the main problems of the debate is rooted in a missing nexus between micro- and macro-perspectives. The result is a lack of an adequate consideration of local socio-political power structures and their influence on development issues. Macro-perspective paradigms – like dependency or neoclassic theory – tend to argue from a Euro-centric perspective and largely ignore local political conditions. On the other hand, micro-perspectives – like the alternative development paradigm – emphasize local conditions, but tend to underestimate superior structures on the national level. On the contrary, this paper aims to demonstrate, that even if economic benefits of tourism are undoubted, the same benefits do not necessarily have equal beneficial impacts on development.

By discussing the Egyptian example, the paper demonstrates how tourism connects economic and political spheres. It suggests that it is not possible to understand the development of the Egyptian tourism industry without embedding it into the neo-patrimonial political system of the country and its political economy as a semi-rentier state. At the end of the 1980s, Egypt's government took the decision to develop tourism, when other sources of rent income were in crisis and the government was in danger of being destabilized. Since then, tourism has been a great success story in Egypt and contributes substantially to the economic development of the country. The tremendously increasing tourism revenues have significantly contributed to the stabilization of the political system and the neo-patrimonial structure of power in Egypt.

Notes

1. In Egypt, this problem appears predominantly on the Mediterranean coast. In contrast to the Sinai, Red Sea and Nile Valley, the north coast is not an all-year-round destination. But, as it is still predominantly a destination for domestic tourism, the seasonality of employment is not a major problem in Egypt's international tourism.