Take some local horror stories that have turned out better than Egypt. First Lebanon - bombed, full of refugees, polluted beaches, politically unstable, expensive (very) - a substantial reduction over the past few years but better than Egypt. Second Israel - bombings, expensive (very) but only down marginally. 3,000,00 for little Israel. Third, benighted Tunisia where they shoot tourists on the beach and are unstable. Their figures are all over the shop but nothing like the Egyptian collapse and stood at an astounding six million in 2014. Very interestingly their figures showed strong early recovery after killings whereas Egypt has collapsed and remained flat after 'troubles'. Many factors at work, of course, but others do ok in bad times in the same region - maybe they are better at managing the psychology and adversity. Maybe they are just better at managing. One difference between Egypt and all the rest is that government does not control the tourist industry and maybe there is more individual and regional initiative and innovation.
I think there is a case that there has been a relative mismanagement of tourism in Egypt. That's coy. This should be no surprise because all other aspects of the economy have been mismanaged for decades/generations. Other countries in similar or worse situations, and with similar or less to offer, have done much less worse or much better.
