4 foreign tourists occupied the interest of activists on social media platforms in Egypt, after they published the details of their tourist visit to the country of the Pharaohs, which turned against their will into a visit under tight security control.
The story began when 4 foreigners agreed to start a long journey of 13,000 km by bicycle, starting from the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and ending in Cape Town in South Africa. They planned to visit Egyptian tourist places and discover the Egyptian countryside along more than a thousand kilometers inside Egypt.
But the matter did not go as planned by these four, as they noticed since the start of their journey that the Egyptian police accompanied them in every step they took, and when they were walking on a narrow road, the policemen would abandon their cars and rent a tuktuk, and they also did not mind - when necessary - to continue the journey in Some of its stages are on foot to keep their eyes on the tourists, and some of them may even get tired of walking and borrow a tourist’s bike to complete his oversight work.
It seems that this close escort disturbed the tourists, especially since they discovered that its purpose was not to protect them, but rather to monitor them and review all the footage they took with their cameras and phones, as well as to prevent them from recording in other places.
One of the four tourists posted a video clip, crying forcibly, and announcing that they would leave Egypt because of this close security follow-up, and after the police confiscated some of their tools.
This story aroused the interest of the Egyptian street, as the Egyptian authorities attach importance to the tourism sector in supporting the country's economy, and previously announced that the profits that entered the state treasury in the first half of last year amounted to 5 billion dollars, and that Vision 2030 aims to be the return of tourism annual $30 billion.
Among the tweets monitored by the “Shabakat” program, in its episode on 3/6/2023, was a tweet by the activist Amr Adel, in which he said, “Failure after failure, and we want tourism to develop in the country. God willing, you are very kind.”
While Hazem Hassan noted the size of government spending to encourage tourism, he wrote, "The procession of royal mummies at a cost of more than a billion, the opening of the Rams Road at a cost of more than half a billion, and the new Egyptian Museum at a cost of more than 15 billion, and then a YouTuber with an iPhone camera will guide all that you have done."
As for Ali, he had a different opinion, and he said, "I do not see mistakes in the security's dealings with foreign tourists, especially since they may be exposed to risks that we do not need."
Bahr al-Aqili also defended the police's behavior and said, "What do you mean, they could be spies with statements of their own? The police have a right. We in their country will not be able to do that."