Egypt builds grand giza museum

The winning design for The Grand Egyptian Museum Photo: gem.gov.eg

The Egyptian tourism industry made just £3.6 billion in 2013, far below its record year of £7.7 billion in 2010, according to the country's tourism minister, Hisham Zaazou. Visitors fell too, from 14.7 million in 2010 to 9.5 million.

The fall in tourism has been a result of the political unrest over the last three years since Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power. Last year, the British Foreign Office and many other countries advised people not to travel to areas in Egypt following the protest and overthrow of Mubarak's successor, mohamed Morsi.

Egupt's most famous tourist resorts suffered their worst month in September 2013, with Zaazou describing them to the Guardian as "ghost cities".

"We were almost zero in some areas of Egypt," he said of tourist occupancy rates. "Here on the Red Sea, it was a bit better – but I'm talking about 10, 15, 20%. It was very bad. In modern history, in the years following our peak year of 2010, it was the worst year."

Now, though, the government hopes that The Grand Egyptian Museum will turn things around.

The attraction, which was supposed to open in 2012, was held back and is now expected to open next summer. The museum will be home to 100,000 ancient artefacts, including King Tutankhamun's mummy.

Mohammed Ibrahim, Egypt’s antiquities minister, visited the project's 120-acre site this week and said that the renewed construction activity had come at a "historic moment". The attraction is hoped to attract up to 15,000 visitors per day.