Paradise Lost: Tourism Workers Search for Better Life

BY SALMA RIZK
@SASSAFRASALMA

Daily routines have changed for former tourism industry workers.

During his late teens, Ahmed Ali spent his days teaching diving courses in the Red Sea.

But in the wake of the worst crisis in Egypt’s tourism history, he has been forced to relocate well above sea level, working as an electromechanical salesman in Dubai.

For Bashier Shok, who once spent his evenings bartending at the Hyatt Regency and Hilton Fayrouz hotels in Sharm el Sheikh, it was even more of a failure to make ends meet as the number of tourists coming to the popular resort seemed to dwindle.

He moved to Prague in 2012 when he couldn’t afford his Sharm el Sheikh rent anymore.

Five years ago, life was much different for Catering Co. Kitchen sous chef Mohamed Ramadan; raw deals saw him go from working in the five-star Royal Paradise Hotel’s kitchen to the AUC campus cafeteria.

For half a decade, the tourism industry in Egypt – a cornerstone of the country’s economy – has been struggling to bounce back from the political and economic turmoil that followed the uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

In 2010, Egypt saw more than 14.7 million tourists; the following year, that figure dropped to 9.8 million, according to statistics compiled by Reuters.

“Instead of doing 15-20 days’ work a month, it turned to 5-7 days’ work, and we only earn when we work,” says Ali of the deep-sea diving industry.

“It’s cheap to live in Sharm el Sheikh, and it was easy to make money. But that was all before 2011.”

It was only a few years ago that Ali was leading week-long diving tours in popular holiday destinations, which he says were bustling.

“I used to pick up my clients from the airport and take them to the boat where we would go diving from [one] island to another,” says Ali.

Business in Egypt’s coastal regions started to falter, though, and with the recent loss of Tiran and Sanafir islands – two diving hotspots, the tourist industry may continue on this path.

Ali claims that the hotels based along the Red Sea coast mostly served tourists that came for the deep sea diving.

Due to this dip in diving clients, Ali had to drastically change his career path to selling electromechanical and plumbing supplies to contractors.

“I couldn’t find work as a diving instructor in the UAE, so I had no choice but to try another job, and I studied mechanical engineering so it’s working fine.”

According to Economic Adviser to the Minister of Tourism Adla Ragab, just 1.2 million tourists visited Egypt in the first quarter of 2016, whereas last year the country saw double that amount.

The Revolution

Before the revolution, Sharm el Sheikh was packed almost full yearround with “rich guests”, says Shok.

“Everybody was happy, [there were] parties, trips and safaris”.

It was a beautiful and clean city, he says.

After the revolution, the city became a different place, a shell of its former self, Shok recalls. “[There were] empty hotels and streets, even public beaches were like cemeteries.”

After working as a bartender in Sharm el Sheikh for nine years, he decided to move to Prague with his Czech wife, who had lost her job in guest relations at the Hyatt Regency.

“I [could] hardly pay for rent, food and daily commodities,” Shok laments.

So when his wife suggested they move to her homeland, he figured they could make a better life for themselves there. It wasn’t as simple as that, though.

“[The] first year was like hell for me – strange language, new community and a totally new life. I had to get any job I can, like in a supermarket, Turkish kebab shop…”

Shok got his current job at Mediterranean S.R.O travel agency after meeting the owner at a Lebanese restaurant.

He was having lunch with a Tunisian friend who had been living in Prague for 12 years and was showing Shok around, when the owner told them he was looking for an Arabic-speaker to work at his travel agency.

“Life is OK now, but expensive, so [I have] no savings anymore,” he says.

“But nowadays there is a hate wave against Muslims, and I would love to come back to Egypt but it is still not good economically.”

Moving to Cairo

Luckily for sous chef Ramadan, he only had to move from Sharm el Sheikh to Cairo to find work, and in the same industry no less.

“The hotels in Sharm [el Sheikh] started to dismiss staff when business slowed down after the revolution,” he recalls.

In search of a better life, he claims, numerous workers have left Egypt’s coastal cities.

“Alhamdulillah, working at AUC is better in all regards,” says Ramadan. “The administration and management here are much better.”

Egypt’s tourism industry is nonetheless planning to attract 12 million tourists by the end of next year. Boosting Egypt Air’s image and international presence abroad is a key component of that plan.

Shok, however, is skeptical. “Don’t get me wrong, I wish to believe this,” he says, “but this is not the first time to hear such speech about developing business without things changing.”

“Anyway, I wish tourists would come back to Egypt soon, because no place is like home,” Ali says.

Vendors in Khan el Khalili are hoping that tourists do come back soon.

Khan el Khalili, the touristic heart of Old Cairo, once frequented by thousands of tourists a day, has suffered considerably. The small handful of patrons has greatly changed the entire atmosphere of the market.

A year ago, one could hardly move in between all the tourists, carts and eager vendors shouting their sales pitches at every potential customer. Now there is plenty of space to walk around.

“Ever since the January 25 revolution, a very short percentage of tourists have been coming and going; you Egyptians are our customers,” said Hany Samir, a bazaar owner in Khan El Khalili.

He said he had grown increasingly dissatisfied and pessimistic about the country’s current state of affairs, and the future of tourism in Egypt.

“The revolution gave rise to violence and short temper within the population, demonstrating on every single thing they don’t like about this country, and we, the bazaar owners, are the first people affected by this.”

Some of the Khan’s bazaar owners estimate that some 20,000 visitors a day frequented the ancient market. Now, it is barely a trickle of a few hundred.

With additional reporting by Heba Fouad