Christmas in Cairo: a time for consumption and charity

Christmas in Cairo: a time for consumption and charity

Egyptians celebrate festive season in spite of their country’s continuing troubles

A file picture of Egyptian Coptic children attending a  new year Mass  at the Virgin Mary Coptic Christian church in  Al-Warrak, Cairo. The Egyptian capital this Christmas is a sanctuary for Syrian, Sudanese, Libyan, Somali, and Palestinian refugees. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

Michael Jansen
Middle East Correspondent

Poinsettias, Christmas trees, coloured lights, decorations and tinsel are in fashion in the upmarket neighbourhood of Zamalek on the Nile island of Gezira, in western Cairo, in spite of the troubles that have gripped Egypt for nearly four years and are expected to continue.

Christmas here, as everywhere, is a time for consumption and charity.

The Wady charity handicraft shop at All Saints Anglican Cathedral stocks handmade fat felt Santa advent calendars, Santa toby mugs, placemats and plates decorated with seasonal motifs, Santa oven mitts, and perfumed candles: presents-in-waiting made by deaf, blind and disabled Egyptians, refugees and prisoners.

The American University in Cairo bookshop sells 2015 calendars printed by the university press. One dubbed, Cats, Crocodiles and Camels, has amusing illustrations of Egyptian animals; the other reproduces photographs taken in 1862 of scenes from Cairo to Constantinople by Middle Eastern traveller Francis Bedford. Just inside the bookshop door are Christmas cards, bright red tree ornaments, and seasonal packaging for gifts.

The windows of shops on a side street near my boutique hotel sport poinsettias and evergreen branches. The florist across the street displays well shaped live juniper rather then fir trees in tubs: exhorbitantly priced at 350 Egyptian pounds (€40.00) before haggling.

Fairy lights flash on the branches of cheap pollution-soiled plastic trees on the pavement outside a tiny toy shop. The charming store blitzed by Christmas is run by three large Muslim ladies in headscarves – good businesswomen all.

My Egyptian companions and I walk down the centre of the poorly lit street after a cheerful coffee break. Even here in Zamalek, pavements are death traps, littered with rubble and rubbish, their surfaces holed, and broken. I pause to have a look at the brightly and tastefully decorated windows of La Maison de Mireille, prof- fering flowered cushion covers, smoked wine glasses, small paintings of Paris streets, baubbles and beads. Most from France, of course.

While the owner of the sad Syrian sweetshop packs up a box of pastries for me to take home to Cyprus, I ask, in French, where he is from in Syria. “Damascus,” he replies and queries. “Have you ever been to Syria?” “Yes, in April and June,” I say. He faces me, eyes blinking to hold back tears, “How is Damascus.” “It carries on,” I respond. He sighs, “C’est dommage” (It’s a pity). “Domage,” I echo, feeling a the touch of the chill hand of a not-so-distant war.

Cairo is a sanctuary for Syrian, Sudanese, Libyan, Somali, and Palestinian refugees. Old residents are tolerated. Newcomers are not welcome and the government is doing its best to limit the inflow. The Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph would not be welcome in Egypt these days were they to flee King Herod’s soldiers.

Zamalek is a special place, a haven for Christians, upper class Muslims, foreign residents, and tourists now trickling in after months of revolutionary turmoil. The owner of my small hotel is celebrating 50 per cent occupancy by filling the lobby with pots of poinsettias. In tower block chain hotels the percentage of guests is far lower but managers place their hopes on the winter season beginning after the first of the year.

Zamalek hosts embassies, provides homes for diplomats who stage bazaars and concerts to benefit the poor of this country where the poor account for at least 40 per cent of the population. The Irish embassy is donating Irish coffee (in line with tradition) to jolly people along and encourage them to buy Irish and other European products at the European charity bazaar taking place today at the Conrad Hotel on the Cairo-side bank of the Nile. Christmas is a time of good cheer and giving among local and foreign Christians.

Passersby reach down to hand bright brass half Egyptian pound coins to an elderly woman with a cherubic face and pink cheeks sitting on the pavement on Shagaret al-Dor street which connects the Irish embassy’s handsome white villa to the ambassador’s residence in apretty pink villa a five minute walk away. Few people take the small packets of tissues she sells. Charity in Muslim Egypt is not confined to the Christmas season but is celebrated year round.

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Egyptian Tourism Industry Boost Not Enough

Egyptian Tourism Industry Boost Not Enough

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Egyptian authorities say the country’s sagging tourism industry is bouncing back, with a huge increase in visitors during the summer and early fall. But as resorts and historical sights enjoy the business, analysts say continued insecurity makes the sector in Egypt volatile, and not profitable enough to fix the country’s beleaguered economy.

On the shores and under the water of this resort town on the Sinai Peninsula, tourists see none of the insecurity the region is best known for in the news.

Egyptian officials say they hope, by next year, to return the tourism industry to its pre-2011 glory, when the industry pulled in more than $12 billion in a year.

Egyptian tourism minister Hisham Zaazou said the hope and challenge was to be able to report a significant restoration of the sector in the first part of next year. But analysts said this challenge was considerable because the industry relied on international public perception of safety in Egypt at a time of continued unrest.

Lebanese American University Political Science Professor Sami Baroudi called for economic diversity.

“Tourism is a very important but volatile sector. So you cannot pin your economic strategy on a sector that one or two bombings or one or two basically assassinations may impact adversely,” he said.

For Egypt to alleviate widespread crushing poverty, he said, the country needed to invest in industry and export goods. But unlike the export business, he added, Egypt’s tourism industry already had the infrastructure and expertise in place.

“You have to bear in mind all the investments that have been done in the tourism sector, all the jobs in Egypt that are tied to tourism. The government cannot but give high priority to this sector,” said Baroudi.

But economists say even if the government succeeds in convincing visitors to once again crowd into its cities and on its shores, the country will still need to rely heavily on foreign aid to keep afloat after three years of political turmoil that collapsed two Egyptian governments.

“It is not enough to help Egypt to take off because the events that took place between 2011 until 2013 had ended the economy significantly,” said Marwan Iskander, a veteran economist with Banque Pharaon & Chiha in Lebanon.
Protests and clashes continue in Egypt, threatening to dial back some of the recent successes in the tourism industry.

On the other hand, Isaknder said new markets were opening up, with a large increase of Russian tourists to Egypt in recent years.

And tour guides here said despite the insecurity they, like the iconic Nile River, would endure indefinitely.

www.egypt.travel

Rooting for Egypt

Rooting for Egypt

BY NELSON ALCANTARA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | NOV 26, 2014

Brett Tollman, President and CEO,
 The Travel Corporation

When Egyptian Tourism Minister Hashim Zazou attended the World Travel Market in London earlier this month, his message was clear: Certain parts of Egypt are seeing increase in visitors this year, but destinations like Aswan and Luxor are still struggling to lure tourists back.

A recent report in the Financial Times stated that tourist arrivals have shot up nearly 70 percent in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same period last year, and arrivals in September increased 193 percent compared with the same month in 2013, with 884,000 arrivals compared with 301,000.

These are all good news, but having been to Egypt just this past year and having seen the desperation among Egyptians who depend on travel and tourism for their daily sustenance was profoundly moving. Egypt is a destination where the impact of the trickle down effect of a thriving travel and tourism industry on local people is evident. Simply put, no tourists equals no income for a lot of Egyptians.

This is why I have always been an ardent supporter of Egypt Tourism even before my trip to Egypt last year. Thankfully, major stakeholders in travel and tourism such as World Travel & Tourism Council Chief Executive David Scowsill and United Nations World Tourism Organization secretary-general Taleb Rifai share the same sentiment. Their influence is palpable, as other major players are also speaking up and showing their support for Egypt. Among them is the chief executive officer and president of The Travel Corporation (TTC), Brett Tollman. TTC in June of this year had announced its plans to resume operations in Egypt for the 2014/2015 season as a “show of support for the Egyptian people.”

I took the opportunity to speak with Mr. Tollman in Lima, Peru, during the last Americas regional summit of the World Travel & Tourism Council to discuss his company’s decision to return to Egypt. Our interview is now being presented as part of our first ever eTN 2.0 Podcast. To listen to the Podcast via an RSS Reader, click on the link below this article

Are you rooting for Egypt Tourism? Take part in the dialogue through the comments section below.

Click here to listen to the eTN 2.0 Podcast