Woman Goes Viral For Revealing What Made Her Trip To Egypt A Nightmare

Egypt's fascinating history, interesting culture and breathtaking sights have established it as a famous travel destination. This place attracts tourists from all over the world; however, not all of them leave satisfied.

Travel content creator Grace Cheng is one of them. A few days ago, she released a video explaining why her trip didn't live up to its expectations.

The woman, who has already been to 36 countries, said that her holiday was mostly ruined by scammers and the widespread hustle culture in general, but she named other reasons too, and mentioned how people can mitigate them.

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Other travel writers have been talking about scamming in Egypt too. Especially at the pyramids. For example, Nick Hilden said that "throughout the complex, you are constantly—constantly—set upon by still more hostile vendors, still more belligerent scammers."

What makes matters even worse, according to Hilden, "the general protection of the site is outright worrisome."

"Tourists are pretty much free to do as they please, so ... you'll frequently encounter stone walls into which scores of people have carved their initials and other messages, even into bas reliefs and etchings of hieroglyphics."

Hilden believes that the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism needs to take dramatic steps. "The present system—or lack thereof—is absurd. It needs clearly indicated lines and signage, and the removal of scammers and touts from the ticketing area."

"Onsite vendors and staff need to be properly trained and, ideally, certified," he continued. "In some cases, it is clear that the staff and even some of the scammers are highly knowledgeable about the complex. With proper training and decent pay, they could be a credit to the experience rather than an onus."

After reaching a record 13 million tourists and earning 13 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, Egypt's tourism industry was hit hard by the pandemic.

But things are returning to normal. In fact, Egypt has welcomed seven million tourists in the first half of this year, keeping the country on track for its projected 15 million visitors in 2023.

Tourism is a vital part of the Egyptian economy. It makes up about 12 percent of the nation's GDP and is among the top sources of foreign currency for the Arab world's most populous nation.

The country has big goals. Egypt envisions attracting roughly 30 million tourists by 2028. The ambitious strategy intends to attract 20 billion dollars of investments, and authorities are planning to increase the hotel capacity in the country from the current 215,000 rooms to 500,000. Hopefully, the problems that Grace Cheng talks about in her video will be addressed as well.