Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | First impressions

		5 - 11 September 2002 Issue No. 602 Opinion	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

First impressions
By Salama A Salama

There are no words that can adequately describe Cairo Airport. The place, in terms of comfort and smooth functioning, could barely stand up to comparison with the Ahmed Helmi terminal for buses to Upper Egypt. I cannot for the life of me see how the utter chaos of such a facility can be reconciled with the image of the tourist haven that our country so desperately wants to project. It boggles the mind, looking at this scene of total chaos, how we can whine about the impact of 11 September on our own tourist industry, how disastrously it has effected that sector of the economy, preventing us from hitting the magical benchmark of 10 million tourists.
The state is running an extensive media campaign to lure our Arab brothers to visit Egypt, instead of Europe, America, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, in an attempt to make up for the huge drop in the number of European tourists coming to Egypt since 11 September. The media campaign, which covers the papers and TV screens, promises the unsuspecting visitor that "my house is your house". Now tell me this: who in their right mind would leave their clean and comfortable house to brave such a scene of unmitigated mess and dirt? Who wants to travel all the way to Cairo only to be welcomed with a sadistic barrage of torments?
The first shock awaiting arrivals at Cairo airport are the small, overcrowded halls where passengers are made to line up for what seems like an eternity, awaiting their turn at passport control booths as if queuing for charitable bread rations. The luggage zone, once you make it there, is like a battle scene, with suitcases scattered all over the place. Just a few more minutes of delay, you realise, and you would probably be standing in front of the lost and found department undergoing an even more frightful ordeal.
You are about to let out a sigh of relief as you step out of the terminal, but realise it is premature. Dozens of taxi and limousine chauffeurs are out to get you, veritable gangs operating with no sense of order or discipline. The airport police take down the licence plates of the taxis, but make no effort otherwise to interfere with the chaotic scene.
The real problem with Cairo Airport is that most of our high-ranking, even middle-ranking, officials hardly use the regular venues of the facility. They are swiftly whizzed through, into VIP lounges, and then out through back corridors. They have no time to grasp the horrible experiences that other, less important persons must undergo. They are shielded from the dreadful reality of the vast majority of visitors first introduction to Egypt, and probably assume that things run as smoothly for the ordinary passenger as they do for them.
Do us a favour, please. Stop the your-home-is- my-home campaign. It is better to keep tourism down if the airport has to remain such a mess. If Tourism Minister Mamdouh El-Beltagui really wants to boost tourism, he should first fix the airport, expand it, and put some order into it. The airport is the first thing travellers see, and first impressions count. Right now, it is not a happy scene.

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