30/07/10, 05:49:24 EDT

  e-mail this article

Wealthy Gulf tourists increasingly opt to spend summer holiday in Cairo

dailystar.com.lb

CAIRO: Feeling less welcome in London, Paris or New York, growing numbers of Saudis and other Gulf Arabs prefer the warm reception and relaxed atmosphere of Cairo for their summer holiday.

"Everything has changed since September 11, 2001, this is the high season," says Jean-Pierre Mainardi, manager of the Egyptian capital's Nile Hilton hotel that provides a temporary home to many Gulf visitors.

Hotels, apartments, shopping malls, cabarets, everywhere moves "on Arab time," as Cairenes call it, whether they're making money from, or being annoyed by, the Gulf influx.

Almost 2 million Arabs choose to come here every year, including an unprecedented 400,000 Saudis last year.

While Cairo has always had a special aura for pleasure-seeking Gulf Arabs, the lessening appeal of European and American cities has increased the attraction.

"I feel good here, it's safe and the Egyptians receive us well," says Kuwaiti Abdullah as he strolls through a glitzy Cairo shopping mall.

Nowadays there is little desire to spend holidays in Europe or the US because of the lengthy and invasive visa applications, strict immigration checks and the general feeling many Arabs have of being a suspect after the attacks on the US World Trade Center and bombings in Europe.

"It's a real boom," says Tourism Minister Zoheir Garannah. "Arab visitors were up 18 percent last year."

While 67 percent of Egypt's 9 million annual tourists are Europeans who would rather head for the pharaonic remains of the Nile Valley, the 21 percent of Arab tourists prefer the pleasures of the capital.

"Everything is cheap, it's less expensive than anywhere else and the weather's so good," says Qatari Fayez in spite of soaring daytime temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius.

But he is one of the rare Arab visitors to venture out during the day, as night time is the right time for most Arab tourists.

"This clientele lives during the night and sleeps during the day, breakfast is served at the end of the afternoon and dinner in the morning," says hotel manager Mainardi. "As for the rooms, they're made up during the night."

The inconvenience is small for the gains to be reaped. A Gulf family will take six to 10 rooms, including one for the Asian maid, for an average of three weeks. For the hotel, this means a summertime occupation rate of over 90 percent.

Others prefer to rent furnished apartments in the upmarket districts of Mohandiseen or Dokki.

"Sixty percent of our clientele come from the Gulf," says Maged Abdel-Azim, who runs a flat rental agency that charges up to $200 a day for three-bedroom apartments.

But some owners refuse to rent out their properties, accusing the visitors of arrogance.

"They break everything or make everything dirty. They burned my floorboards by smoking their shisha [water pipe]. Never again," says apartment owner Mahmoud Abdun.

These wealthy visitors, who fascinate and exasperate in equal measure, also spend a lot of time in shopping malls, where the women are easily noticed by their full-length black niqab.

The girls wear the headscarf over the latest fashions, while the boys wear the worldwide teenager uniform of jeans and T-shirt. The men, meanwhile, real or pretend bachelors, stay in the cabarets or casinos where the money flows and encounters take place, off-limits to Egyptians.

 Printable Version  | published Aug 30, 2007