Tourism: Goldmine or conflict of cultures?

Egypt Daily Star News (Ahmed Maged)

Gaber is a Hurghada-based carpenter who spent years of his career working at a hotel in that famous sea-resort. Now he has shifted to a contracting company following the recent construction boom.

For Gaber and many other Egyptian hotel staff the shift is inevitable whenever an opportunity offers itself in another field. Simply put, any income generated through tourism is "haram" — prohibited under Islam.

“This is a sector where the bulk of profit is made through the sale of alcoholic drinks and hosting unmarried couples,” related Gaber. “True, I didn’t work in bars, but it’s a feeling of guilt that I had always failed to overcome.”

The same attitude can be traced among Egyptians, common people or otherwise. After Magdy Zaher got his BA in archaeology from the University of Alexandria, he refused to do the diploma qualifying him to be a tourist guide. Instead, he went to work as a shop-assistant at a department store in Dubai.

Holding the same view, Karim Saber, a driver at a tourist agent’s in Sharm El Sheikh, is looking forward to the change once something new comes up.

But dig a little deeper, and it becomes apparent that people from outside the tourism field share the same opinion.

More than 15 years ago the matter was brought to light by the BBC as part of a program that focused on the impact of tourism on Third World countries.

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