No restrictions for tourists in Egypt

Cairo, June 30 (IANS/RIA Novosti) There will be no ban on wearing bikinis or drinking alcohol by tourists coming to Egypt following the election of Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood as president, an Egyptian official has said.

Egyptian Ambassador to Russia Alaa El Hadidi told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily that Egypt would not restrict tourists since tourism accounts for about 12 percent of the country's GDP.

El Hadidi's statement came after Morsi's allies said during the presidential campaign that there will be restrictions for tourists if Morsi is elected.

The restrictions forecast included a ban on selling alcohol, wearing bikinis outside hotels and dividing beaches into male and female zones.

"Turkey is also a Muslim state. However there is no such beach division there. Why should it exist in Egypt?" the Russian daily quoted the diplomat as saying.

Morsi, Egypt's first civilian president since Gamal Abdel-Nasser, became president by garnering 51.7 percent of the vote after Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down following an uprising in February last year.

The Egyptian tourism industry was significantly affected by the Arab Spring uprising that toppled long-serving president Mubarak and put the country under an emergency situation.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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