Not a visitor in sight at the Pyramids, as Egypt’s tourism trade freefalls: Normally bustling site is deserted and market stalls empty as fear keeps people away 

Plane disasters and the ongoing threat of Islamic terrorism have have brought Egypt's beleaguered tourism industry to its knees.

The economy of the crisis-hit north African country is at risk of collapsing as holidaymakers stay away from the famous Pyramids and the once popular seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. 

And the EgyptAir crash, which killed 66, was the last thing Egypt needed as it is increasingly being seen as a tourist 'no-go area' following a number of attacks by ISIS.

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The Pyramids in Giza have been popular with tourists as long as there has been tourism. But today (pictured, right) the pyramids are deserted, in stark contrast to a little over a year ago (left) ��

The cause of the disaster which brought down the Airbus A320 37,000ft into the Mediterranean is still unknown.

In November ISIS downed a Russian Metrojet plane which blew up over Egypt's Sinai desert as it flew from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Hotel managers in Sharm el-Sheikh have now slashed prices to as little as £18 a night and Bob Atkinson, a travel expert, told MailOnline the resort was 'on its knees'. 

Even the stylish Renaissance Hotel, which offers spectacular views of the Red Sea from many of its 384 rooms has been forced to drop its prices to £23.

Similarly, the once popular Sunrise Select Diamond Beach Resort has cut its rooms to £35 – a rate more commonly found being advertised by budget hotels.

The prestigious Radisson Blu Resort is offering a guests rooms at £18.16 a night, including taxes, if booked as a seven-night stay through the Travel Supermarket website.

Jet-set tourists used to pay up to £200-a-night for room in the best hotels in Sharm El Sheikh. Former British Prime Minister used to visit Sharm El Sheikh regularly with his family.

Similar rooms along the Red Sea coast at the Radisson Blu Tala Bay Resort, Aqaba in neighbouring Jordan start at £117.50 a night. 

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Egypt's tourist trade has collapsed with numbers down dramatically. This image of The Sphinx at Giza shows just how numbers have fallen off

British woman Amanda Diboll, who has previously holidayed in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey said: 'Obviously in all these areas there have been a number of major incidents that have made us feel that the risk has become too great for a return visit.'

Egypt in particular has been wracked with civil strife in recent years.

The Arab Spring sparked a revolution in 2011 which brought down President Hosni Mubarak but that was followed by months of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in Cairo, which led to an army coup in 2013.

An ISIS offshoot in the Sinai desert has killed Egyptian soldiers and police officers as well as attacking tourists.

The WTTC said tourist spending in Egypt fell by four per cent last year, with similar falls predicted for this year. 

The British government has banned planes flying to or from Sharm el-Sheikh from UK airports and there has also been a huge fall in Russian tourists.

So where have all the tourists gone?

Apparently Portugal and Spain have been the main beneficiaries, with Greece also seeing a slight increase in numbers. 

Business is slow for the traders at the souvenir stalls near the Pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo (pictured) 

Tourist numbers are down year on year and are expected to worsen this year. The Pyramids are pictured last year

This week pictures emerged showing how the usual crowds surrounding the Pyramids had vanished

Coaches are pictured bringing foreign tourists to the Pyramids in 2007. Ten years earlier 58 foreign tourists were murdered by terrorists in a massacre at Luxor but Egypt recovered over time, but things are much worse this time 

Horses used for rides around the Pyramids at Giza wait forlornly for customers. Tourism in Egypt has been badly hit by terrorism and civil strife

A camel waits for a tourist to appear. Experts say the Egyptian economy is close to collapse as a result of terrorism and the damage to the tourist industry

The sphinx forlornly guards the pyramids - but from what? Not visitors

In the midday sun visitors were few and far between 

The Great Pyramids sit in the haze from a distance. When tourism is booming the foreground would be full of tourists on camels posing for photos and that road would have buses lumbering back and forth 

In Sharm el-Sheikh some desperate managers are even offering free dinners with the cost of a room to entice guests to stay.

‘Sharm is dead,’ British café owner Lorraine Green told MailOnline.

‘The big hotels are now offering silly prices. The tourist business is down 90 per cent.

‘There are a few Ukranian tourists – but there are no British and no Russians, which used to come in big numbers.’

Lorraine, 58, who runs the Alexandro Café in Sharm El Sheikh with partner Mohamed, added: ‘It’s a terrible shame because Sharm was just getting back on its feet after the [2011 Egyptian] revolution when the Russian passenger jet went down.

‘Now most of the hotels around me are closed. There are no direct flights from the UK and Russia although we do still get Eygptians coming here.

‘While things are bad I think Sharm will survive. Although we feel the British government has forgotten about Sharm, sadly.’

Across Sharm El Sheikh empty sun-loungers lie side by side and swimming pools at abandoned hotels sit empty and infested with weeds.

Trees grow over a novelty train ride at one of the 100 hotels which have closed.

Elsewhere, camels which once gave tourists rides now standing idle and are fed out of rubbish bins in the Old Market district.

Chilled: The same hotel in Greece costs £132. From this resort though, guests are able to go on camel trips and explore the desert. The resort once employed six million people. Now there are just 300,000

Great deal: The prestigious Radisson Blu Resort (pictured) is offering a guests rooms at £18.16 a night, including taxes, if booked as a seven-night stay online. In Jordan, the hotel will cost from £117.50 a night

Many of the market stalls now lie empty and restaurants which remain open are often deserted in the evenings.

Some six million people used to work in Sharm – before political upheaval and airline disasters kept visitors away. Locals now estimate that only 300,000 workers remain in the resort.

One tourism worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘Sharm is now a ghost town. It is sad to see it looking this way.

‘The British and the American tourists were the best customers, but now they do not visit.

‘It is killing our livelihood and I worry that they will never return. Every time there is terrorist attack it makes it less attractive for tourists.’

In Cairo tourist numbers have also fallen due to the political instability and the recent aeroplane disasters.

The famous pyramids at Giza are now practically deserted with guides and stall-holders pouncing on the few holiday-makers there are.

Some 15 million tourists – including almost one million British holiday-makers used to visit Egypt every year with Sharm El Sheikh a favourite spot.

Budget: The Sunrise Select Diamond Beach Resort has slashed its prices to £35 – a rate more commonly found in budget hotels

Low cost: The stylish Renaissance Hotel, which offers spectacular views of the Red Sea, has been forced to drop its prices to £23

But that figure has dropped dramatically since the Russian Metro-jet was blown out of the sky in a terrorist attack after taking off from Sharm in October.

The atrocity claimed the lives of all 224 passengers and crew on board.

Flights between Sharm El Sheikh and the UK were grounded the following month on the direct orders of the British government.

The current advice from the Foreign Office is to avoid ‘all but essential travel by air to or from Sharm’.

It says that British airlines and travel companies will be able to start flying to the resort ‘as soon as appropriate security arrangements are in place’. 

However, the loss of passengers and crew on an EgyptAir flight which crashed into the Mediterranean last week will almost certainly hinder any revival of the country’s shattered tourism industry.

The country's tourism industry, says one expert, is now one disaster away from being finished altogether. 

Dr Yeganeh Morakabati, from Bournemouth University, who specialises in the perception of risk in the context of catastrophic national and global events, told MailOnline Travel: 'It was and it still is crucial for the Egyptians to not let any other events occur as it would be fatal to what is left of their tourism industry.

Recovery: Lorraine, 58, who runs the Alexandro Café in Sharm El Sheikh, said the resort was just getting back on its feet after the first plane crash, but was now going to suffer again because of the latest disaster

Dying: One tourism employee said British and American tourists no longer visit the resort, which ‘is killing our livelihood and I worry that they will never return'. A million British tourists used to visit Egypt every year

'Sadly, this latest event comes shortly after EgyptAir was subject to a hijack on 29th March and they were already trying to recover from the events related to the Russian charter flight that was blown up in November 2015. 

Egypt attracted 346,500 tourists in February 2016, compared to 640,200 last year, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics. This represents a drop of 46per cent.

The same effect has been seen in Tunisia, where there was 90 per cent drop in British visitors from January until April, following the attacks on tourists at the coastal resort of Sousse a year ago. 

In Egypt, terrorists continue to carry out atrocities and further attacks are expected, according to the Foreign Office.

In January, three tourists were stabbed by two suspected Islamic State militants in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

The terrorists were shot by police at the Bella Vista hotel after they attacked two Austrian guests and a Swede.

Earlier that week, a gunman opened fire on a tourist bus in Cairo.

Supporters of Islamic State are now active in the Sinai region that surrounds Sharm.

An Egypt Air flight was hijacked recently by a man wearing a fake suicide belt.

Risk: The current advice from the Foreign Office is to avoid 'all but essential travel by air to or from Sharm'. Egypt attracted 346,500 tourists in February 2016, compared to 640,200 last year

Tough: The famous pyramids at Giza are now practically deserted with guides and stall-holders pouncing on the few holiday-makers there are

Egypt's government, keen to maintain desperately-needed income from visitors, has been reluctant to admit to security problems.

Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed sought to play down the impact of the latest airline crash on Egypt’s image.

‘The efforts that we need to put are maybe 10 times what we planned to put in place but we need to focus on our ability to drive business back to Egypt to change the image of Egypt,’ he said.

‘What we need to understand is this is an incident that could have taken place anywhere. Aviation incidents happen, unfortunately.’

He added: ‘We work hard to recuperate and every day will be a better day.’

The main central lobby of the Egyptian Museum is teeming with ancient treasure - but not tourists this spring

The massive three level Temple of Hatshepsut was the site of a tourist massacre in 1997. It had recovered since, until recent plane accidents decimated the tourist industry again. 

The Valley of Queens, where tourists can visit the tombs, is proving as unpopular as other sites

The original pyramid, the so called Step Pyramid, has also been nearly abandoned by visitors

The picturesque Temple of Philae wasn't seeing much foot traffic last month, even before the plane crash

The Temple of Karnak was already nearly devoid of tourists last month

It's almost impossible to tell the scale of the Temple of Edfu without any people in the photos

The massive UNESCO site of Abu Simbel, carved into a cliff face, is similarly lacking scale with no people in this picture taking in April