Sun for their money

By Salama Ahmed Salama

Due in large part to inconsistent planning, the North Coast has been subjected to the haphazard creation of a vast number of tourist villages, including housing units for professional syndicates, which are used only for a month or two during the summer.

This policy is based on a not very convincing argument: that developing the North Coast is tantamount to modernising it. It was also said that any money spent on these projects would be reinvested in Egypt, leading to the creation of new job opportunities and encouraging the growth of many industries, among them steel and cement. These development projects were to provide the wealthy with the opportunity of spending their holidays in Egyptian beach resorts, and therefore spending their money here in Egypt, instead of travelling to Europe in the summer.

Most tourist and housing experts believe that investments in North Coast development have been profitable -- a debatable point.

It would have been much better for the national economy had this entire coastline been devoted to investment projects, which would have brought high returns. According to impartial estimates, however, the tens of billions spent on creating tourist villages, which can only be used for limited periods and by particular classes of people, are a waste of public funds. The only party that has benefited from this building frenzy are the construction companies.

And the vast majority of Egyptians, who suffer overcrowding on the beaches of Alexandria, Baltim and Ras Al-Bar, have been denied access to decent summer accommodations. Clearly, the vast investments the state has made in water, sewage, transport, roads and other public utilities were for the sake of the rich only.

The incentive for building many of the tourist villages created from the 1980s onward was the idea of handing over their administration to companies that would ensure a steady flow of foreign tourists all year round, while reserving several months of the year for the use of the owners. This was enough to bring investments flowing in. Yet the activity which characterises the North Coast in summer comes to a halt in November. The coastline becomes something of a chilly ghost town in winter.

Of course, the idea of using the rest of the North Coast to set up tourist investment projects, as most of the Mediterranean countries have done, has not been implemented. Luxury tourist villages have appropriated the North Coast; is it impossible to imagine a solution whereby different classes, and not just the very wealthy, could spend their summer holidays there?