Egypt: Bring in the tourists!

With tourism counting for about $12 to 15 billion in revenue and employing about 12% of the country's work force, tour operators and their clients weight really heavily on the economy of Egypt and might, if they were to present a united front, heavily influence the outcome of the current stalemate between the demonstrators and president Mubarak. It would seem to me that visitors to the land of the Pharaohs are generally well educated and less likely to give a blank check to old-fashion tyranny.

This means that if all of them (tour operators, groups and individual travelers) could find a common voice, they might bring their influence to bear and tip the entire conflict in favor of openness and democratic rule. It's clear that if Mr. Mubarak is tempted to follow the course followed by the Chinese in Tienanmen, he would do irreparable damage to his country. If that were the case, tourists would have a moral obligation to voting with their feet, especially if other world governments were to turn a blind eye to repression, whether it'd be under the form of a forceful response by the army on the ground or through a military Coup. Sure, I don't have a ready-to-use recipe on how to mobilize that vital part of Egypt's economy and leverage it in favor of its people, but the idea has huge potential...