Tourism is a fascinating topic for study, and many excellent textbooks have been written on the subject. Agricultural production such as wheat, corn, and rice; extraction of natural resources, such as coal, timber, oil, and iron; and the trade of such tangible goods, were all very important activities to humankind, for thousands of years. Although the potential of the tourism industry has often been invoked, many people remain somewhat skeptical about it. The national economy has been facing severe economic problems since the Asian financial crisis of 1997, with a GDP real growth at 3.3% and unemployment rate at 8%, for the year 2001. Tohamy and Swinscoe compiled a working paper on the impact of the tourism sector on Egypt’s national economy. As the Bureau of Economic Analysis pointed out in its 2002 reports, however, the tourism industry complex consists of several different industries and each sector's dependence on tourism-related revenues varies significantly.