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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Ready or not
By Rehab SaadFor those who take the bait and flock to Egypt to join the much-vaunted "holy route tour" following the flight of the Holy Family through Egypt, Assiut is likely to be on the itinerary. Probably the most important site on the route, Assiut is the southern-most point reached by the Holy Family and is reputedly the place in which they stayed the longest.
Two monasteries associated with the flight are clustered around this major city in Upper Egypt, with the Monastery of the Virgin Mary (known as Deir Dronka) 10 kilometres southwest of the city and the monastery known as Deir Al-Muharraq 5 kilometres northwest. Assiut is thus expected to receive a large number of visitors starting 1 June -- the date considered to be the anniversary of the Holy Family's arrival in Egypt and, incidentally, the inauguration of the holy route tour.
Ambitious in scale, Egypt's newest tourist product seeps into the fringes of the tourist map, offering a chance for little-known or forgotten towns along the route to reinvent their relationship with Egypt's lucrative tourist industry. I went to Assiut to find out if the city was ready for an influx of religious tourists on the order of what the Ministry of Tourism is expecting.
If the Holy Family tour does take off, a place like Assiut -- being one of the larger stops and, presumably, the end of the line -- will be a focal point for travellers. I wanted to see if there was enough hotel accommodation and if there were shops available to visitors. I wanted to know whether the sites were easily accessible and if the roads to the monasteries were paved. Given the difficulties foreign travellers have had with security in the past, I also wanted to see whether people would be able to move around freely. In short, I wanted to check out all the preparations being made.
Assiut is a beautiful city and potentially combines all the elements favorable to tourism. Situated on one of the most beautiful parts of the Nile, the landscape is sensational and the city has monuments dating from Pharaonic times through Coptic and Islamic eras. Wherever I went I was delighted with the vast areas of green, contrasting so spectacularly with the desert and the mountains to the west.
The whole area around Assiut boasts relics of the ancient past, including the pre-dynastic relics and Pharaonic tombs at Meir, the Deir Dronka and Deir Al-Muharraq monasteries, old souqs (bazaars) and a large number of mosques dating to the Ottoman era. Yet despite these attractions, Assiut has never been a big draw for tourists.
Even in its heyday, when it was a stop-over for tourists on Nile cruises between Cairo and Aswan, Assiut only attracted a modest number of tourists. After the terrorist attacks mounted in Upper Egypt, the government halted cruises between Cairo and Aswan, restricting them to trips between Luxor and Aswan and thus depriving Assiut of its lifeline to the tourist trade.
Since 1992, there has hardly been any tourism in Assiut, says Farouk El-Mery, owner of Assiut Hotel (one of the largest in the city). "We only get religious groups from Austria, Switzerland and Germany, who come primarily to help the poor and go to orphanages and churches to provide assistance," explains El-Mery, adding that there are also foreign experts who work in foreign companies and factories in Assiut.
Emphasising the need for activities devised with the tourist in mind, El-Mery argued that people visit a place to see various historical sites -- and then to have fun. "Here there is nothing to entertain them. Will they come all the way here to watch TV in the evening?" he asks. "Of course not. There should be folkloric arts for example, or places to spend the evening, like cinemas, theatres and restaurants."
El-Mery expressed his concern about the development of tourism in Assiut, adding that security measures that restrict the movements of foreigners without security escorts have put a damper on attempts to encourage tourism in the area. "This is definitely of extreme importance," he said, "however, when people are accompanied by security forces, it is sometimes exaggerated and guests become annoyed."
Mahmoud Shamekh, head of the tourism department at Assiut governorate, realises that the promotion surrounding the route of the Holy Family and its final destination in Assiut is a defining moment for the city's potential touristic appeal. "If we do not get tourists now, when will we ever get them?" he said. "This should be a climax for us."
"We certainly have sites where travellers can go, and we can prepare interesting programmes for them so that they won't have a chance to feel bored," Shamekh said. But given the aggressive campaign widely promoting a "millennium pilgrimage," it is questionable whether good intentions are going to be enough.
The old souk (bazaar) of Assiut, where all manner of goods are sold
photo:Ayman Ibrahim
Addressing the issue of accommodation, Shamekh said that Assiut has a "good number of hotels." Assiut has seven hotels, one of which is still under construction, but if the number of pilgrims meets the ministry's expectations, Assiut will not have enough facilities to accommodate them.
Back at the Assiut Hotel, El-Mery does not regard available accommodation as a serious problem. "If I am guaranteed that people will come, I can easily get three or four Nile cruisers from Luxor and Aswan and put up extra travellers in 300 to 400 extra rooms. These cruisers will not be operating in summer, so it will be easy to work up deals with them. Moreover, Assiut has perfect docks that are fully equipped. They are better than those in Luxor and Aswan," he added.
And yet, despite hopes that tourists "following in the footsteps" of the Holy Family will find their way to Assiut, there are no signs that any preparations are being made in the city for any kind of celebration. Even the two monasteries -- the focal points of the Holy Family tour -- are not planning any specific events for the 1 June launch.
"We do not have anything special in June, but we traditionally have our own annual celebration in August each year, when about a million and a half pilgrims, mostly locals, visit the monastery. All foreigners are welcome at that time," said one of the monks at the monastery of Doronka.
"Our monastery has been stable over the years and will never change," he added. "The only thing that we plan for the millennium celebration is to paint the facade of the monastery, in blue and orange."
The same can be said of Deir Al-Muharraq. Father Kozzman told Al-Ahram Weekly that there will be nothing out of the ordinary come June. "In the last few months there were rumours that there would be a 'Son et Lumière' performance at the monastery, but this is not true. We cannot allow such a performance. This is a place for prayer and pilgrimage and such performances are not suitable for our way of life in a monastery."
Father Kozzman did add, however, that the monastery is ready to receive all visitors that wish to come. "I believe that there will be more visitors this year than at any time before because of the big promotion the government is doing for the revival of the Holy Family route," he said.
They may be welcome, but how will visitors get there? I found that access to the monasteries is not easy. Tourists will need cars or buses to transport them, as there is no public transportation. In any case, tight security measures -- adopted to protect foreigners -- will inevitably result in stymied attempts at exploration or, worse, scaring people away. Travellers cannot feel free to walk around or see sites around Assiut at their leisure, or even walk around and shop.
Assiut has some surprisingly good shops, as well as fast food restaurants and even home-delivery services. According to the tourist department, serious steps have been taken and continue to be taken for the preparation of Assiut's new "tourist product."
"We have improved our infrastructure; we planted trees in many places, paved roads, lit many areas and built rest houses and even a tourist complex," said Shamekh, speaking of the 15 chalets with 30 beds built to accommodate the boom of expected travellers; a later phase will add 10 more chalets.
"We are really enthusiastic about this," Shamekh added. "We are studying the possibility of establishing a dock at Al-Qusiya, a village near both the Deir Al-Muharraq monastery and the Pharaonic tombs of Meir. This would make it easy for travellers to visit these two sites," he said.
Ahmed Hammam, Assuit's governor, has even more ambitious plans -- to improve Assuit's tourist facilities and "find a place for Assiut on the tourist map."
He is realistic about Assiut's needs. "We need more hotel rooms," Hammam admits. "We have enough to accommodate the people, but we are anxious to have more." There are currently two weekly flights to Assiut, and a third will be added starting June. "We want to have regular flights and encourage one-day trips to Assiut, as well as conference tourism," Hammam said.
Ultimately, demand will dictate the changes in this hesitant city. No amount of fanfare can match a little bit of good, old word of mouth. Says Hammam, "We will do our best to enable people to get to know Assiut -- the 'heart of the south'."
