Is mass tourism a blessing or a curse, asks Rehab Saad on a trip to Hurghada It was early in July when my husband and I decided to join a few of our friends on a trip to the Red Sea city of Hurghada. We started our trip at dawn in an attempt to reach our holiday resort early and thus to escape the heat. Despite the mid- summer heat which Hurghada is known for, we were attracted by packages offered by some of the five-star resorts there. And why not? We were planning on spending the day by the beach, where we wouldn't feel the heat, if not snorkelling and fishing. We were also drawn by the promise of sumptuous breakfast and dinner buffets at a reasonable price, while by night we would stroll through the city, stopping for a drink at one of the coffee shops or restaurants lining its streets. We took the new Ain Sukhna Road, passing through Zaafarana, where we stopped at a coffee shop for a snack before we drove on to Hurghada. It was about 12 noon when we reached our resort, one we had stayed at six years ago. It commands an unrivalled location in the city centre, so getting anywhere was easily done. During our first trip, we were completely satisfied with our choice of accommodation, the food was great, the service was fine and all facilities were available. We were certain that this time our expectations would be met again. However, we were disappointed to find that some unwelcome changes had taken place. No doubt, Hurghada has grown to become a beautiful city. Its streets have become wider than they were, old small shops are replaced by bigger ones to offer all kinds of commodities, and baladi (local) fish shops have been turned into air- conditioned fish restaurants. Spectacular hotels and holiday villages have been constructed to deal with the influx of hundreds of tourists at a time, while small boats that used to transport visitors on snorkelling and fishing safaris have been replaced by double-deck modern air-conditioned yachts. The problem with such developments rests in the fact that, today, most of Hurghada's hotels are designed to target mass tourism. And in order to attract travellers, especially foreigners, to their resorts, most hoteliers are now adopting the all- inclusive concept, whereby tourists pay a rate that is just a little higher than normal in return for eating and drinking all day long without paying any extras on checking out. On the outset, package deals appear to benefit the tourist because they don't restrict them to the breakfast and dinner buffets. They can have food in several outlets at any time. Moreover, they don't have to pay any extras for their kids' ice creams, soft drinks or their own mineral water. All of these apparent benefits, however, no doubt take their toll on the quality of both the food and the service. Breakfasts and dinners offered on the all-inclusive buffets are basic, while the taste of the food indicates that it is merely there to satiate hunger rather than provide any sense of satisfaction or luxury. For example, instead of individual yoghurt cartons for breakfast, guests are offered a big communal bowl from which each is expected to serve him or herself. Cheap cereals are offered in place of quality produce. Small glass bottles of fizzy drinks are on offer instead of cans. Peanuts replace hazelnuts, walnuts and pistachios on desserts. Even the ice cream offered all day long is not of good quality. The good food is only offered outside the all-inclusive deal, meaning you have to pay extra money to get it. And despite having booked ourselves in for the half-board package -- which includes breakfast and dinner only -- we were not exempt from the mediocrity of the renewed buffets. Throughout our stay, breakfast and dinner time at the buffet was always very crowded with hundreds of guests queuing to pick up their on-the-spot omelette or spaghetti. No doubt one key reason for the mess was the fact that only about five or six waiters were serving all of that number. Faced with such volumes of work, the waiters struggled to get a client his water or soft drink on time, to set an extra table or to accommodate a baby chair for the family by the restaurant window. Although they were clearly doing their best, the shortage in staff was enough to leave guests dissatisfied. Surprisingly, I later found the same crew serving guests at the beach. "I work a 16-hour day," one waiter told Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity. "After we finish with breakfast we serve in other places. There is a shortage of workers in the resort these days because few people agree to work under such circumstances," he said, adding that all what he gets from his job is LE500 a month, including tips and service charge. The 212-room resort suffers from a shortage of housekeepers -- at a rate of just about one for each floor it naturally takes them an incredibly long time to tidy all the rooms. Throughout our trip, we would leave our rooms at about 10am, only to find them untouched on returning at 3pm. A hotelier who spoke on condition of anonymity explained that in order to fill their rooms by all means, these five-star hotels have to offer very cheap rates to foreign travellers who come on charter flights. It is for this reason that the quality of service and food fall below all expectations. But what about Egyptians who pay double or even triple the price paid by the foreign tourists, and are still made to suffer the same below-standard food and service? "We cannot do anything about that," the hotelier said. "The problem is that Egyptian tourists only travel during public holidays -- mid-year, summer holidays and feasts -- while foreigners are here all year. We have rooms that are allocated for travel agents who bring foreigners in all the year round." In the early years when Hurghada was emerging as a tourist destination, the hotels and resorts were no doubt simpler and more primitive. However, care for details was taken to provide a deluxe service and an unforgettable travel experience. Now, resorts are bigger, more sophisticated and offer several facilities. Unfortunately they are not equipped to provide quality service as the new prime concern is to fill hundreds of rooms at a time with guests. It is understandable that when the number of tourists increases, the revenue increases -- thus it is fully within the rights of hotel and resort owners to do as much as they can to attract tourists. But in order to get them to return for a second visit, hoteliers must also be prepared to spend a little extra on the details, which are, after all, the key to a successful holiday experience.
