Pyramids, temples, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, whether from the perspective of civilization monuments or natural scenery, Egypt is a country with extremely rich tourism resources.
Going to Egypt to play is the dream of many tourists, let many people go to Egypt to play, is the dream of the Egyptian government that regards tourism as a pillar industry, which would have been a good thing to hit right away, but helplessly, there have been too many natural and man-made disasters in the world and Egypt in recent years, the Arab Spring, terrorist attacks, epidemics... Egypt's tourism industry has been hit hard again and again, like a roller coaster going through a cycle of troughs, recoveries, blows, and no, recently something has happened in Egypt, this time on the Red Sea, accounting for 65% of the total number of tourists who go to Egypt to play.
On Friday, in just a few hours, two consecutive female tourists, from Austria and Romania, were killed by sharks off the waters off the Red Sea resort of Hurghada. Egypt's environment minister, Yasmin Foyad, said in a statement on Sunday that a joint committee of experts from the Red Sea Reserve and the Hurghada Environmental Association was investigating the deaths of two female tourists after being attacked by sharks in the city of Hurghada. The local government also immediately suspended all activities at the scene of the accident, and the scene and nearby beaches were closed for 3 days, and fishing boat activities were also suspended.
In a suspected live video circulating on the Internet, a woman can be seen struggling in the sea, and the sea around her is stained red with blood, and the scene is very frightening.
The latest shark cannibalism comes at a time when Egypt's tourism industry is struggling to recover from the effects of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and poor Egypt has been heavily dependent on Russian and Ukrainian tourists. Thanks to the return of Russian tourists to the Sinai Peninsula last August, coupled with the grand pharaoh mummy golden motorcade parade in Cairo in April, and the opening of the Luxor Sphinx Avenue in late November, Egypt's tourism industry has finally gained some momentum in the second half of 2021.
In April, the Website of the Daily Mail selected Egypt as one of the best destinations to visit for Spring/Summer 2022. In the same month, Tripadvisor, the world's largest travel guide platform, named Cairo the second most popular travel destination in the world in 2022.
Such a good sign, and then stirred by the ferocious shark, people's lives are at stake, for a while and a half who will dare to play again?
For tourists to come to the Red Sea again, the Egyptian government must find ways to create a safe environment for tourism, but preventing shark attacks is not easy. In fact, this is not the first time a shark has eaten man in the Red Sea, and similar incidents have occurred in Egypt in recent years. In 2020, a young Ukrainian boy lost an arm in a Red Sea shark attack and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg. In 2019, a diving enthusiast was bitten by a shark in the Red Sea. In 2018, a shark killed a Czech tourist in the Red Sea. In 2015, a German tourist was killed in a similar attack. In 2010, in Sharm El Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula, across the Red Sea from Hurghada, multiple shark attacks killed and injured several European tourists.
It is worth mentioning that in 2019, the companion of the diving enthusiast who was bitten by the shark took a picture of the shark biting, which was really thrilling:
Fortunately, this person was saved by the diving instructor, but he bit a large hole in his right thigh and stitched forty or fifty stitches:
Most of the man-eating sharks in the Red Sea are pelagic whitetip sharks, one of the most ferocious sharks, and probably the most like to attack humans. As the name suggests, the pelagic whitetip shark spends most of its time in the ocean farther offshore, but occasionally swims to the coast, which is when it is hungry and can't find anything to eat, apparently, the pelagic whitetip shark of the Red Sea seems to find that in the summer, there will be a lot of prey on the coastal beaches. Therefore, solemnly remind everyone that when you go to the Red Sea to play, you must pay attention to safety and do not become a thing in the belly of a shark.
Speaking of which, I remember going to Hurghada once a few years ago, when I only played in the hotel's water park, I didn't go to the sea, and now that I think about it, I may have escaped a disaster.
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