Cross-Cultural Blog

Dear Julia

As an Egyptian who is all to familiar with the notorious reputation that precedes Dahab, I would like to thank you for pointing out the very positive aspects of its tourism industry.
Local interactions in Dahab go straight to Egyptian citizens without going through any multinational corporations that basically take most of the profit and leave locals with almost nothing.
Also, Dahab's tourism industry caters to a different consumer than that of Central Egypt's, so in the end Dahab's unconventional style only brings in more tourists to visit Egypt.

When it comes to drugs and prostitution, Dahab is definitely not the only tourist destination that entertains such activities; they have become an essential element in tourism since a good percentage of tourists support them financially. That should not be counted as a contributor to the disorder in Dahab. On the other hand, the economic perspective just shows how the population is not satisfied financially and definitely cannot solely rely on mulinational corporations for income. A certain class of Egyptians, as citizens of a developing country that has not achieved its full potential just yet, are grasping every tiny business opportunity for income, no matter the level of success anticipated for the business. If the government interferes, these people will pretty much starve.
So Dahab is not as corrupt as it is developing. The illegal activities being pursued there should not be the definitive factor of the place itself.

The reason Dahab has such a bad reputation is a vicious cycle of it not providing enough income for the government and the large tourist industry resulting in a bad reputation, which further adds to it not providing income to the government and the tourist industry.

I believe that multinationals in Egypt are strongly involved in the politics of the country. Since Dahab prevents multinationals from gaining more money, they can easily influence the government to associate Dahab with a bad reputation, driving tourists away.

Dahab has yet to reach the high-class standard of other tourist destinations in Egypt. But as long as it remains operated by locals without any government intervention, it will continue to be a retreat for tourists who pursue illegal activities.

I agree with Yara that the government picks on Dahab simply because the multinationals cannot derive any profit from the type of tourism that goes on there. Sex tourism also happens to occur in Cairo during the summer, except between the "rich" Gulf Arabs and young Egyptian women. However, because the Arab men are usually accomodated in five-star hotels owned by the multinational corporations, nobody attacks this type of "tourism" as viciously as they do to Dahab. Sure enough, the average Egyptian will usually comment, in disgust, on the immorality of the sex tourism in Cairo. However, that's about as far as it gets.

It is good to see that people from other parts of the world have a different perspective of Dahab, but we should be objective to eradicate the bad reputation related to Dahab. Dahab is deprived of the government’s attention because of the lack of multinational corporations. Yet, that does not allow its people to get involved into some illegal practices such as drugs and prostitution. I think Dahab could make use of its limited resources in a better way instead of directing them to illegal activities, but people always choose quick and easy ways to make money. Dahab is not the only city that does not have multinational corporations, there are cities like Marsa Matrooh in the north-west of Egypt, where the local people struggle to make their living depending on their limited resources, yet they have not got involved in illegal activities.

I agree with Sarah, the fact that Dahab turns to drugs and prostitution as a method of making use of its limited resources, I think, is not the best way to go about it either. But what else can it do? Many people say that there are better ways the people of Dahab could have made use of there resources. ok, but what are those ways? Given the fact that the government is ignoring Dahab, are the people of Dahab economically fit to put them into action? As I said, I do not agree with the drugs and prostitution either, but can the people of Dahab really do anything else with their limited resources whithout the governments help?

I would have to agree with Yara as well on the fact that the government surely has a hand in Dahab's bad reputation. I believe that is becuase of two reasons, first is becuase of the low income rates Dahab brings in, and the second is becuase the government does not want one tourist area in Egypt to be the only "hot spot" because that would then affect other areas with the same offerings.

I agree with Noha that the government has a hand in Dahab's bad reputation as Dahab doesn't receive any governmental attention because it lacks multinational corporation. I think our Egyptian government works only for profit why would they care about an industry controlled by locals. A notable example is that Sex tourism is everywhere in Cairo throughout the whole year..especially in five-star hotels, so it's not a new thing and it's not only in Dahab, but the problem with sex tourism is that when the Gulf Arabs and the rich in five-star hotels are the ones who ask for and fund for it, the government can't attack such a lucrative business. But when it comes to Dahab which is controlled by locals and doesn't get much money they attack it saying it has an illicit reputation...I think that is how things go here it's hard for the government to attack the rich who are a source of income to the country. However, the government need to pay so attention to Dahab instead of accepting sex tourism in multinational corporations and at at the same time calling it illicit in Dahab and making people more convinced of Dahab's bad reputation which is not true...More control is needed !!

I would definitly also agree with yara on what she is saying. Dahab is an area that is commenly visited by tourists from all around the world. As for dahab's reputation it is not true by all means. However, instead of Dahab using its limited resources on illegal drugs, they could use them to produce something that is more useful.

As Nada pointed out, Dahab is clearly not the only place where prostitution and drugs take place; they have become essential in many tourism businesses, especially those run by giant corporations. However, they are not associated with prostitution since their spendings contribute directly to the big businesses' profits. The fact that Dahab is particularly good for supplying drugs is entirely irrelevant as long as only Dahab is acted against for harboring drug lords.

First of all, people talking about Egypt or any place and misjudging it in a way or another, whether it is a good or a bad judgment has to have good knowledge of that place or at least visited it and saw what is really going on there. The "stereotype" is that Dahab and most of the parts in sinai is that they are only places for drug dealing and prostitution. However, this is a very vague and very general stereotype, because drugs and prostitution are every where and not only in DAHAB or SINAI. They can be found in most of the countries and towns nowadays, and they are things that one can get easily. Dahab maybe one of the famous places for drug dealing but it has been decreasing these days than before. Dahab has alot more beautiful things and spots more than what people think about. YOU JUST HAVE TO PAY IT A VISIT TO BELIEVE.

Based on the comments, it seems like most of you agree with what we posted, that the Dahab's bad reputation is mostly due to multinational corporations not being able to attain financial profit from the tourist destination.

However, I was struck by Abdallah's strong statement, "First of all, people talking about Egypt or any place and misjudging it in a way or another, whether it is a good or a bad judgment has to have good knowledge of that place or at least visited it and saw what is really going on there." I would have to admit that I don't have good knowledge of Dahab and my group and I based our arguments on what we read from an article. I don't think any of us has ever visited Dahab, or Egypt for that matter. So in a sense I feel guilty to be making a judgment about a place, though it is a good judgment, without actually knowing all the facts about it. Another part of me is pretty impressed though. Even though we have never set foot on this place, we are able to dissect the root problem simply based on the article. It seems like the Internet is providing an effective means of communicating problems across national borders.

Based on the comments, it seems like most of you agree with what we posted, that Dahab's bad reputation is mostly due to multinational corporations not being able to attain financial profit from the tourist destination.

However, I was struck by Abdallah's strong statement, "First of all, people talking about Egypt or any place and misjudging it in a way or another, whether it is a good or a bad judgment has to have good knowledge of that place or at least visited it and saw what is really going on there." I would have to admit that I don't have good knowledge of Dahab and my group and I based our arguments on what we read from an article. I don't think any of us has ever visited Dahab, or Egypt for that matter. So in a sense I feel guilty to be making a judgment about a place, though it is a good judgment, without actually knowing all the facts about it. Another part of me is pretty impressed though. Even if we have never set foot on this place, we are able to dissect the root problem simply based on the article. It seems like the Internet is providing an effective means of communicating problems across national borders.

Thank you everybody for reading and commenting on our post. I really appreciate all of the interesting responses.

I had some of the same thoughts as Nikiya when I read Abdallah's post. Do I have any right to be commenting on a situation on the other side of the world that I know very little about? I think it's okay for us to put our impressions out there, so long as we acknowledge that we are by no means experts and are open to critiques from anybody.

I also wonder about what Sarah and Hasham said about whether it is okay to praise Dahab when it does have these bad practices going on--even if they go on in other places too. Hasham said "But what else can it do?" It is an interesting question. Could Dahab attract the number of tourists it does without the always lucrative drug and sex tourism, even though there are other aspects to Dahab?

it actually can attract toursist without the lucrative drugs and sex tourism..Dahab has alot of beautiful places and landscapes that are unique and can attract tourists because they are not always looking for the sex and the drugs..apart from the nature it has alot of nice places to go to at night as well and a nice night life like any other touristic place in the world.

Thank you Nikiya and Katherine for your comments, i will be glad if you got my point exactly. Because this issue of bad or good stereotyping has been very annoying for a long time. And sometimes people can misjudge things according to false information. And i think visiting the place or at least getting credible knowledge about it is the least we can do befor judging anything .
By the way, thanks for ANONYMOUS for your illustration and clearance.

Thank you Abdullah for your point, but don't you think that people make stereotypes even if they visited the place? stereotypes are made everyday, even by us Egyptians,we make stereotypes for other people. what Nikiya, Katherine and the other students did is the same that we do. We read articles and we try to understand what we have read by exchanging our different ideas and perspectives about the topics of the articles. I think its better to build your knowledge of something or someplace, you do not know about, on an article that you have read instead of building your knowlegde on someone's opinion or hearsay.

The moral decay that the Dahab article references is symptomatic of greater societal problems i.e. gender inequality, poverty, joblessness. These problems were caused by humans and so humans can fix them.

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