Wrong Goals in the Arab World's Tourism Development

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Wrong Goals in  Arab World Tourism Development

The usually upbeat Arab News.com  was, as usual, upbeat in projecting solid growth for Middle East tourism, even as it writes of 2011 because of home-grown revolutions against Arab dictators.

Quite literally banking on the area’s historic and religious sites, its world-class shopping, infrastructure and growing wealth, the site reports that “the tourism industry is resolutely optimistic.”

Quoting a spokesperson from Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which include the St. Regis and Sheraton brands, Arab News said the U.S. company planned to open 41 more hotels in the region in the next four years.

Calling it a “vote of confidence in the future,” Starwoods’ Neil George, VP of Development, told Breaking Travel News  it planned on “building on their presence in Saudi Arabia (and expand) to markets like Morocco, Tunisia, and Algiers.”

George also sited Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as targets for growth.

But what’s missing, as I see it, is a failure to realize that most in the “real” Arab world live on a few bucks a day.

Contrast the ostentatious Burj Al Arab hotel in  Dubai, considered the world’s most luxurious by many, with the poor citizens of the towns and villages in Jordan, Syria, Egypt, even in some places in the Emirates. The plan seems hubristic.

And dangerous.

It’s the very profound contrast of the wealthy and the powerful with the poor and dispossessed that created the spark for the present uprisings...and the hope for more equal distribution of wealth.

What’s an even greater disconnect is the sidebar to the Arab News’ report.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Saudi Arabia’s agency in charge of aviation issues, promises to apply “global best practices to passengers traveling through Jeddah.”

Yet right below the claim, someone asks if anyone in charge reads the posted comments, which consist of complaints of rude, indifferent and crude behavior on the part of airport employees.

Two cautions are in order. Money doesn’t buy a successful tourism program.

The overbuilding of Dubai, coupled with the recession, resulted in a near collapse of the Emirate.

The present plan for more hotels led Euromonitor to warn about another glut of hotel rooms.

More importantly, we suggest that the planned expansion of tourism facilities running into the billions of dollars take into account the source of the recent and ongoing uprisings.

The “Arab world” the officials are really talking about  are Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi,  oil-rich Sheikdoms very removed from the heartland “Arab world” of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine.

Building up the local economy in those countries;  providing better health care and education to the people, getting them involved as partners in tourism visions and plans, might just create pride in tourism goals  and not deep-seated resentment.

The Arab world does not need another “world’s tallest skyscraper,” 7-star hotel or fake Abu Dhabi beach. 

Its needs are more basic and human. And that is what travel is all about. People. Dignity. Not glitzy buildings.

Image: Dubai Mall

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Amen, Hal!

[Hal Peat]

About the media lunches and your perception that it puts you outside of the "mainstream travel media sensibilities" - well, perhaps that is...perceptual on your part as far as what constitutes mainstream at this point in human history?  By which I mean, of course, that new media has triumphed, and traditional media has been relegated to a sort of twilight zone existence.  In other words, from where I stand you are ironically not on the outside looking in but in fact very much the New Inside.  That's generalizing to a huge degree because I admit I don't know all your more specific views on the applications of new media - although I do agree with what you're saying about sustainable tourism in some of the ME locations and hopefully how new media can contribute to that.  But again, my issues and concerns are more focused in this instance with the role that travel media of all kinds is playing in that part of the world presently - thus my use of the word complicity.  Given how fundamental new media was/is to the genesis of what you call the Awakening, it just seems obscene to me that some people in travel blogging/journalism who are such vocal proponents of new media show no *solidarity* with the people in the streets using that new media, and instead just leap at the chance of a junket in Jordan.  Oh wait, Bahrain will no doubt be reaching out in similar fashion soon to offer them a swell time while hundreds languish in jails a few miles away.  What does that have to do with sustainable tourism?  Well, a good deal actually - because anyone who can be bought out by an autocratic regime to present a favorable image of it to the rest of the world, can also just as easily be bought out to tout the next environmentally disastrous mega-resort sitting next to an impoverished neighborhood or sucking up water out in the desert.   To paraphrase the  biblical: "What profiteth it a man to gain the new media, and lose his soul...?"

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

I'm sure they do, at least for the citizens. Guest workers from Sri Lanka etc., may have a different story to tell.

Thanks for writing, Forrest...my only real point is that the Gulf States are really not the heart of the Arab World. Syria and Egypt are ( Damascus and Cairo) and of course Baghdad was. Spend some of those tourism development dollars not on fake beaches and luxury hotels, but in the religious and cultural heart of the region.

Btw, your post was inadvertently dropped. Do repost, if you care to. It was a worthy comment.

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Right. The odd thing is the "Media Lunches"  piece, of all pieces,  would seem to have put me very much on the outside of mainstream travel media sensibilities...though that is not necessarily a virtue by any means.

At any rate, let me point out in passing, I don't much like the term "Jasmine Revolution" because it minimalizes by a reductive process, the true, deep dynamic of what is going on there.  I'm not sure what to call it except, having lived and worked there for years, I might call it The Awakening...a process that I think will and should redefine priorities of tourism as it, hopefully, redefines the role and kind of government.

Anyway, enough said. Good to get to know you some.

Kaleel

 

[Hal Peat]

Hi again, it's always good to be a gadfly although nowadays imo that also depends on where you've been busy gadflying.  There's a new technorati in the universe, and some sections of it within the travel media community don't like to be challenged, so if you've been gadflying there then you've probably been doing it where it needs to be done most.  I guess my initial impression of where you were coming from may have been constructed from what I read in your blog on tourism board lunches.  The internet isn't always the best place to accurately and immediately understand the true nuances of another person's related opinions, so obviously I need to read you further in your future blogging:) Meanwhile, I agree in kind with what you've further written on the future of sustainable tourism in the middle east, which I too hope will have gained a new basis in recent months, but as you say those on the outside who participate have an important responsibility to encourage rather than being complicit with old models.

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Yes, of course you're right. Complicity, as you refer to it, or lack of awareness is always an issue, especially relative to the Middle East.
Also, , I'm not sure where you get the idea that I revere travel journalists or bloggers. I have all together too many scars that suggest I have been an industry gadfly rather than its angel or advocate.
Still, however limited the scope of my post, I would ask Starwood and related corporate types to spend tourism development dollars on preeserving the desert castles of Syria and Jordan, propjects similar to Tybet Zayman in Jordan and any kind of sustainable tourism project, unlike the Burj al Arab that preserves the authenticity of the cultures and makes accessible placews like Jerash and not Abu Dhabi malls.
Thanks for commenting , though, and please forgive spelling errors, etc. In a car and moving fast

[Hal Peat]

You can point the finger at executive level corporate decisions in continuing to invest and expand hotel presence in the countries you have cited, but, let me play devil's advocate for a moment here.  You mention "people", "dignity" and presumably you refer also to the goals of the Jasmine Revolution - but, it could be also pointed out that typically the decision to expand by a large corporate chain such as Starwood begins long, long ahead of the actual ground-breaking and thus they could have had no inkling of the type of social/political change that was about to unfold with the Jasmine Revolution and the changed middle east landscape, with an entirely new set of considerations given the contrasts between new regimes arriving compared to what's still in place.  I would also point out at the same time, that other interest groups - to whit, travel journalists and media of which I myself am a part - have had by contrast far greater flexibility in deciding what to support by our own coverage of the region and what to avoid - and yet exactly the type of social blogger and travel blogger that you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread, Mr. Sakakeeny, have made a conscious decision to support through media coverage some of the surviving repressive regimes in the region.  For example Jordan, which through the Jordan Tourism has been making an extensive effort to bring North American bloggers over there.  Did any of them have even a moment's hesitation about what they were about to help give a glossy PR spin on while pro-democracy demonstrators get assaulted by government thugs and police in Amman?  Apparently not - the lure of the joyride and first-class treatment on a junket proves yet again to be the true bottom line with this type of opportunist, and many went over there this past month of April.  Oh, and let's not forget, Starwood was probably happy to host.  Complicity in repression is a wider dynamic than your narrow view of citing just hotel management decisions allow.