CAIRO - Mustafa Essa El Hossany, a 35-year-old Egyptian, is cleaning the camels and horses from his stables. Behind his stables are the spectacular pyramids of ancient Egyptian kings and queens guarded by the great Sphinx.

Hossany is the owner of the stables and his business is to rent camels and horses to tourists. He said the past year was a nightmare for him.

"Before last January, I would normally have 30 to 35 guests per day but now at most I can have 10 to 15 only," he said. "Just after the end of last January, I didn't have any guests for nearly three weeks."

Li Yuan and his friends from Nanjing, capital city of East China's Jiangsu province, were among the handful of visitors that morning.

"We had been long attracted by the great Egyptian civilization, but we would never have made this trip unless my friends in Egypt had reassured me that there were no problems at the country's major tourist destinations," he said.

In 2012, the number of tourists to Egypt witnessed a 33.17 percent decline compared with 2010. Tourists from China declined 54.23 percent, decreasing from 106,227 to 48,620, according to statistics from the Egyptian tourism ministry.

There are nearly 25 stables like this in the village of Na Zlat El Saman just next to the entrance of the pyramids park. During the past year, the business has been severely affected by the difficult political situation in the country and the livelihoods of those who rely on this industry were threatened.

Under the pressure of soaring prices, Hossany is deeply concerned about his business and the future of his two children.

"The price of a kilogram of meat has increased from 15 ($2.48) to 80 Egyptian pounds and a camel's price nearly doubled to 15,000 Egyptian pounds during the last few years," he said.

But what has not changed was the price of riding tours, which was set by the government 25 years ago, 35 Egyptian pounds per hour.

According to Mohamed, as the number of tourists slumped last year, sometimes his earnings couldn't even meet his costs.

Hossany didn't vote in the country's recent parliamentary elections as he says he has no faith in politics or politicians.

"Candidates only come to our place every four years when a election is about to take place and after that, no one can find them and they never listen to us," he said.

But he does have some hopes for the new government and new president, as he expects more support for the tourism sector.

China Daily