A few days after Egypt’s Economic Development Conference (EEDC) in Sharm El Sheikh that aimed to drum up more investments, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry passed a new amendment that requires all individual tourists to obtain a visa before traveling to Egypt; a decree which left many people bewildered and skeptical.

The new regulations come into effect May 15, and according to Egypt's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Badr Abdel-Ati, organized tourist groups and foreigners living in Egypt will not be affected by the new amendments, although individual tourists will be.

Previously, tourists traveling to Egypt from the United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Macedonia, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and the United States were able to obtain entry visas upon arrival at Egyptian airports.

"Individual foreigners wishing to visit Egypt either for work or for tourism purposes will be the ones who will need to obtain a prior visa from their Egyptian consulates," Abdel Ati told Ahram Online.

"This is an act of state sovereignty,” Abdel Atti added. “Every country has the right to protect its borders."

Rasha El Azaizy, media advisor at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, stated that “I don’t believe it will be have a bad effect because most tourists come in groups.”

Meanwhile, several people working in the field of tourism, as well spectators, both Egyptian and foreign, expressed concern over the new regulations and the repercussions on tourism.

“This decision is surprising and strange,” said Khaled Al Menawi, the head of the non-governmental Chamber of Tourism Companies. “It is a move in the opposite direction that will hamper the efforts made over the past months to revitalize the Egyptian tourism.”

“This decision has seemingly been issued without enough studies on its economic repercussions,” said Ihab Moussa of the non-governmental Tourism Support Alliance. “State authorities can preserve security without harming tourism. Egypt can apply the system of issuing e-visas as other destinations such as Dubai do.”

Egypt has been investing a lot of effort to increase the number of tourists, which was highly affected since 2011. In 2010, almost 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt, a number that fell to 10 million in 2014.

In a previous interview with Reuters at the end of last year, former Foreign Minister Hisham Zaazou expressed his optimism that tourism would fully recover by the end of 2015. After the new regulations, he told The Guardian that “no doubt, it will have an effect."

“Pre-2011, 25% of tourists were individual tourists. After the revolution it went down, and now it is somewhere between 15 and 20%. So you’re speaking about 2 million people. It’s a big size.”

On another level of discussion, some Egyptian spectators found the Foreign Ministry’s decision to be sound and logical:

“The normal thing is to get visa to the country you intend to travel to before you leave your country. The exception is what Egypt use to do by giving you a visa at the airport. Why you complain if they will go back to normal. Visiting Egypt is really worth a little trip to the consulate to obtain its visa and some change for the fee,” commented Mo Megeed on Egyptian Street’s story update.

In return, others responded with totally different opinions, saying: “Hello. I do not agree. Take an example of Dubai. Their tourism sector would not ever flourish unless they open up for obtaining visa on arrival. That step helped UAE to rank its tourism sector as a 3rd income after petrol and fishing,” said Karim. While Goaltender Interference replied: “Visiting Egypt is really worth a little trip to the consulate to obtain its visa. My nearest Egyptian consulate is across an ocean, 1,300 kilometers away. I have visited Egypt twice but will not be doing it again, for obvious reasons.”

The visa regulations were previously discussed and applied in 2011, only to be lifted three days later after outcry that the decision would severely harm the flow of tourism to Egypt.