Egypt to spend $32M upgrading tourist resort security

CAIRO – Egypt's tourism minister says the government will spend $32 million to upgrade security in two Red Sea resorts popular with foreign tourists.

In a Thursday statement, Hisham Zaazou said the plan would expand the use of security cameras, scanning and detection equipment and sniffer dogs in Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada. He says additional security personnel will be deployed.

News of the upgrade follows two attacks this month targeting hotels frequented by foreign tourists in Cairo and Hurghada. No one was hurt in the Cairo attack, but three tourists — two Austrians and a Swede — were injured in Hurghada.

Tourism numbers have fallen in Egypt in the tumultuous five years that followed the 2011 revolution, and after the suspected bombing of a Russian passenger jet flying over Sinai in November.