How a murky security crackdown in Egypt snuffed out South Sinai's hiking economy

Over the last decade, the Middle East has witnessed multiple initiatives to develop long-distance hiking trails aimed at promoting adventure tourism projects that are sustainable, community-based and deeply rooted to the land and its history.

In Egypt, the first such project launched in 2015 as a 220-kilometre, 12-day trail that ventured into the uncharted and scenic depths of South Sinai, as it wound its way through the Gulf of Aqaba to the summit of Saint Catherine, the country’s highest peak.

Called the Sinai Trail, the project helped both open Egypt to a type of tourism that was previously marginal and place the country on the world hiking map. 

It also quickly received several prestigious awards in recognition of its excellence.

But in recent years security services have been narrowing the margins of the initiative alongside other emerging hiking projects, an insider within these organisations told Middle East Eye. 

As a consequence, the Sinai Trail was forced to announce that it would cease its activities at the end of 2024.

The reasons for the crackdown remain unclear. But founders believe it stems from a historical distrust of Egypt’s Bedouin communities and an attempt to disrupt economic activity from which some within the security services could not profit.

'It seemed so bizarre that the government would try to stop tourism that made such a difference to some of the most marginalised communities in Egypt'

- Sinai trail co-founder

The shutdown is having a profound impact on many, including some young Bedouins who had found work and hope on the trails, but now have to look for alternative ways to make a living, including through illegal activities, MEE has learned.

At least two former guides from one of these projects went into smuggling and were killed by the army. A third who worked in illegal mining was arrested and jailed.

“After everything we put into it and with the hopes that we had – because these organisations had such a bright future in Egypt – it was difficult to see that these projects were being stopped without any good reason,” one of the initiative's co-founders told the MEE on condition of anonymity.

“We had the consolation of knowing that we did our best, we really did,” he added. 

“We knocked on every door, we asked everybody that we knew to give us support to help underline the case for this kind of tourism.”

Sinai to the Red Sea Mountains

The Sinai Trail began to take shape in the summer of 2014 as a community-based initiative that sought to foster the first long-distance hiking trail in Egypt. It followed in the footsteps of other similar projects in other nearby countries, such as Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.

It emerged at a challenging time in Sinai, as unrest in its northern half sank tourism throughout the vast peninsula, despite the south remaining quiet and removed from violence.

“We had a lot of hope, we had a lot of energy, and we loved what we did,” the co-founder said. 

“We did it because a place we love was on its knees at that time. And because we felt that this place had something big to contribute to people from all around the world,” he added.

Three Bedouin tribes of southern Sinai, the Tarabin, the Muzeina and the Jabeleya, were the first to take the lead. 

They worked together for a year to devise the best possible route for the trail, drawing on ancient pilgrimage, trade, and smuggling routes in the region.

They agreed to manage the project together and to each hold an equal share.

Their main purpose was to highlight the beauty and the depths of Sinai’s wilderness through a trail that traversed some of its most remote areas. 

Additionally, the initiative gave renewed value to the Bedouin knowledge of the land and helped protect the region’s critically endangered nomadic heritage.

The entire Sinai Trail, from the Gulf of Aqaba to Saint Catherine, was first traversed in late 2016 by a group of more than 20 hikers who came from as far away as New Zealand and the US.

The success of the trail soon helped to develop small economies around it as well, including crafts produced by women, which benefited local communities in remote areas. 

A programme was also put in place for young Bedouins to receive training in guiding skills from the elders.

In 2017, the Sinai Trail took a step to expand even further and grew into a breathtaking 550km, 48-day trail that crossed the lands of all the eight Bedouin tribes of South Sinai, including the Awlad Said, Garasha, Sowalha, Hamada and Alegat.

Just two years later, the Red Sea Mountain Trail (RSMT) debuted as a sister project to the Sinai Trail with a 170km, 14-day hike that ventured into the secluded highlands of Hurghada.

“These were two organisations that brought people from every tribe in their region together in a cooperative way that worked to show the best of their region and tell their story in their own voice to the world,” the co-founder said.

From recognition to crackdown

In 2016, the Sinai Trail was voted the Best New Tourism Project in the Wider World by the prestigious British Guild of Travel Writers. 

The ceremony, held in London, was attended by the governor of South Sinai, the minister of tourism, and the Egyptian ambassador to the UK. It was the first show of official support for the project, according to the co-founder.

Two years later, the Sinai Trail had the backing of Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat, who began promoting it abroad. 

Unlike her predecessors, she supported not only the country’s traditional offerings of historical and beach tourism, but also groundbreaking new initiatives.

But things took a turn following the Covid crisis and Mashat’s departure from the tourism ministry.

The minister now holds the Economic Development and International Cooperation portfolio.

“After Covid, [Mashat] went to a different department, a new tourism minister came in and we literally never had a single communication with him or anybody after,” the co-founder noted. 

“The environment that we had to operate in [from that moment] was completely different.” 

Since then, the focus of the Egyptian authorities has shifted back to the traditional offer of historical and beach tourism. 

They also began to tighten restrictions on hiking activities in the country, mostly by cancelling official permits for the hikes, sometimes on the day of departure.

In recent years, permits for multi-day trips have become virtually unobtainable and security agencies more active in monitoring and restricting hikes, especially in the Red Sea Mountains, according to the organisers of these long-distance trails.

“At first, we only thought it would be temporary. We didn’t think that this could be something serious,” the co-founder said. 

“It seemed so bizarre that the government would try to stop tourism that made such a difference to some of the most marginalised communities in Egypt, and that had made such a contribution to its reputation as an adventure tourism destination.”

In 2022, security officers went a step further and arrested a Bedouin leader and held them for hours, alongside a guide from the RSMT, according to the co-founder. 

Both were warned that they would be jailed if they organised more trips. They were forced to sign documents of understanding. The RSMT immediately stopped all activity.

“I don’t know why [they] tightened up particularly in Hurghada [first],” the co-founder said. 

“My feeling is that it might have something to do with the fact that the Bedouin community [there] and in the Red Sea mountains as a whole have less leverage in negotiating power with the security services than the Bedouins did in South Sinai,” he considered.

'The government has taken away that opportunity - and that has come with tragic consequences'

- Sinai trail co-founder

In the Sinai Trail, hikes began to be scaled back in 2023, and almost stopped in 2024, due to lack of official permits, which left guides exposed to security risks and safety liabilities.

With such narrow margins for hiking tourism and the risk of additional crackdowns, its organisers also decided to announce its official closure on 30 October 2024.

The co-founder noted that it is difficult to know which branch of the security apparatus was behind the crackdown because they often operated in the shadows.

But he said that it was not the police, and that they worked in the intelligence services, probably the military branch.

A few hours after posting their closure statement on social media - where they had built up a strong following - the Sinai Trail team were contacted by military intelligence officers who urged them to remove the post, the project’s co-founder said.

“Even if we’d kept on [trying] it wouldn’t have made any difference,” he believes. 

“And to a degree, there was an element of relief in being free from the intimidation that came from the security services to us over a number of years,” he added. 

“That was seen in detentions of people [and] different kinds of harassment that would happen: police cars parking outside some of the houses for up to a week, people following us in the street, receiving strange phone calls,” he continued.

Anti-trails environment

The crackdown on hiking tourism comes as the tourism ministry works to double the number of tourists in the country from 15.7 million in 2024 to some 25 to 30 million by 2028. 

Ministry officials say they expect the private sector to play a key role in achieving these goals.

A 2015 report from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) identified adventure tourism as one of the fastest growing areas of the industry, and noted that countries at all stages of economic development are prioritising it for its ecological, cultural, and economic value.

The UNWTO report highlighted that adventure tourism stands out for being resilient, high-value, supportive of local economies and sustainable, a combination that the leaders of Egypt’s long-distance trails see as key to the country because of its domestic and regional context.

'Keeping an entire industry working without permits actually works in the favour of officials'

- Co-founder of Sinai Trail initiative

In 2010, the global value of adventure tourism was estimated at US$89bn and just three years later, in 2013, it reached US$263bn, an increase of 195 percent.

According to estimates by market research firm Global Market Insights (GMI), the adventure tourism market was valued at $483bn in 2023 and could increase by 15.2 percent annually until 2032.

Rankings prepared annually by the Adventure Travel Trade Association also show hiking tourism as the most popular activity within adventure tourism for each of the last five years except for 2021, when it was second.

The reasons why the Egyptian authorities are moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the world are unclear due to the opacity with which they have cracked down on the Sinai initiatives. However, trail organisers believe there both political and economic motivations.

“The environment [in Egypt] is anti-trails; it’s one that opposes the free growth and development of trail projects,” the co-founder said.

They argue that this is partly because in recent years the authorities have been more focused on high-end resort tourism projects, despite these being less beneficial to local communities. For example, in Saint Catherine, the trekking capital of Egypt, a controversial major urban project is underway.

Another suspicion is that the security services remain wary of Egypt’s Bedouin community - which they have traditionally marginalised - and do not want to empower them with a very lucrative industry that they could operate and manage independently.

At the same time, it is believed that the security services would also like to impose a permit system, which they could directly benefit from financially. And in its absence, chose to maintain the informal permit system now in place, which guarantees them an undeclared flow of money.

“Keeping an entire industry working without permits actually works in the favour of officials,” the co-founder noted. 

“It means that they create an informal economy in which they can agree for a trip to go [ahead] unofficially, but that would be done in exchange for money, or a favour, or something else that they need of value from the veteran who’s taking the trip.” 

It is also suspected that powerful tourism industry figures - especially those working in the beach and resort sector - were wary of the emergence of independent, grassroots initiatives, which could have posed competition, and may have lobbied to curb them.

Pushed back to the margins

For the Bedouin communities that were involved in the hiking initiatives, the crackdown and closure of the trails has already begun to take its toll.

In the areas where Bedouin communities have traditionally lived there are few alternative work opportunities, so the criminalisation of this type of tourism is pushing some, especially young men, into dangerous illegal jobs, such as smuggling, illegal mining and, in some areas, drug cultivation, the co-founder said.

“That’s one of the most tragic outcomes of the whole thing,” he admitted.

At least three young men who had worked as guides in one of Egypt’s long-distance trails turned to smuggling after its closure. Two of them have since been killed by the army. 

Another one went into illegal gold mining, but he was arrested and remains in jail.

“These were incredibly promising young members of the Bedouin community who excelled as guides on the hiking trails and had bright futures ahead of them, [which] was a real source of income that enabled them to maintain their families and their lives,” the co-founder said. 

“When that is taken away, we have to think about what other opportunities are actually available for people in these marginalised desert regions and for people that live in the desert. What else is there to do, really?” he asked rhetorically.

The co-founder also noted that the Bedouins have not drifted towards formal nine-to-five jobs, “whatever the reason may be”. 

He firmly believes that the best way to create employment opportunities would be to allow them to do legitimate work, such as trail tourism.

“The government has taken away that opportunity - and that has come with tragic consequences,” he said.