i went to sharm el sheikh with my relatives in the last eid break and it was amazing. I was really happy that this place got back on its feet after the bombings that almost destroyed its reputation and made the huge tourism rate decrease. It was crowded and full of life as usual. There were even more tourists than Egyptians there. One thing though caught my attention there, which was the way the workers there mistreat the tourists. I felt that they were really abusing them. For example, the vendors of the gifts and souvenirs there whenever they see a tourist they raise their prices to the triple or even more. At one gift shop, I bought a scarf for my sister for 35 Egyptian pounds. When an American bought the same scarf, she paid 50 dollars for it! That’s not the only abuse I noticed. The taxi drivers charge the foreigners way much more than they charge the Egyptians. Also the rates of snorkeling, renting boats, food, safari, and even clubbing tickets tremendously vary between Egyptians and foreigners, I don’t like that and I believe that it’s totally not ethical. They should be fair when it comes to prices not only because it’s unethical, but also because the image of Egyptians is hurt with their actions. Tourists believe that the Egyptians are thieves and are trying to steal their money. I think there should be an intervention from an upper hand and try to get this fixed. Maybe a possible solution is having a fixed price for everyone for the same goods and services. This way the tourists would feel more comfortable and safe. Some of the tourists might think that Egypt was beautiful and a great place to go but wouldn’t come again because he felt unsafe and used. A huge part of the Egyptian economy relies on tourism so I think that this issue should be taken more seriously.
tourism and sharm
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