"The boat business is very slow these days. In other words, tourism is not like before the revolution. Before, we used to get tired from busy work but now as you see it is very slow."

 

　　"Tourists these days are afraid of walking alone in the streets. They walk with their tour guide, in groups or with security guards. If a tourist wants to visit Dandara, he must take a body guard with him and the same thing applies on visiting Aswan. Nowadays, there is no safety."

 

　　The number of tourists travelling to Egypt dropped from 14.7-million in 2010 to 9.8 million the following year.

 

　　Tourism revenues are down 30-percent, largely due to the political turmoil and continued protests in the country.

 

　　The deadly balloon crash is only adding to the woes for people living in Luxor, which is one of Egypt's prime tourist destinations.

 

　　Occupancy in the city's hotels is only running at around 25-percent right now.

 

　　This time of year is supposed to be the peak tourism season for the ancient Egyptian capital.

 

　　Egyptian tourism minister Hisham Zaazou says the balloon crash won't affect the country's tourism industry in the long run.

 

　　"This is the first time that this incident is taking place so the authorities in Egypt are going through deep analysis of the causes that resulted in this tragic accident and we are doing our utmost (to see) if there is a specific cause to take care that it doesn't re-occur again in the future. But I do not think this specific incident will have any negative effect on the operation in the medium to longer term."

 

　　Many tourists also say they're undeterred by the grizzly accident.

 

　　"Yeah, I think that for the balloon accident is not that much of a problem, I mean there are the demonstrations in Cairo going on, but it is like I still feel safe."

 

　　"Luxor is a perfect place for visiting; I mean I have a nice motorbike tour here and I have been in the Valley of the Kings and in Hatshepsut temple and other places are nice."

 

　　Around 75-percent of those employed in Luxor are connected to the tourism industry, making vistorship - particularly foreign visitors - a life-line for the city.

 

　　Egyptian figures show around 40-percent of Luxor's population lives on less than one US dollar a day.

 

　　That percentage was 18 percent in 2009.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Ding Lulu.