Egypt may impose hefty fines on tourist harassers
A draft law that would impose fines on vendors who harass tourists in Egypt also hopes to curtail the sexual harassment of visitors to the country.
Egypt has drafted a bill that would impose hefty fines on people who harass tourists as part of efforts aimed at attracting additional tourists to Egypt and reinvigorating the country’s struggling tourism industry.
The draft law stipulates that a tourist harasser could receive a fine ranging from 3,000 Egyptian pounds to 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($166-$555), state television quoted Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anani as saying.
“The draft law ensures that if tourists are annoyed, their harassers will get a maximum fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds,” El-Anani was quoted as saying in local media. He said that the punishment is delineated in a new article introduced to the Antiquities Law, which was issued in 1983.
“The draft law would help put an end to sexual harassment at tourist sites — a practice that mars Egypt’s reputation abroad,” Hossam el-Akawy, a tourism expert and a member of the Tourism Investors’ Association in the Red Sea, told Al-Monitor.
