CAIRO - Protests have been organised by small investors, who have rented commercial stores in Sharm el-Sheikh, due to the owners' insistence on getting high rents, despite the tenants suffering from the tourism recession prevailing in the Red Sea resort. Small investors came to Sharm el-Sheikh, without any support or subsidy, to make money through their own initiatives and projects. They have been exposed to many recent economic crises, which have badly affected their revenues to the extent that they have become threatened with bankruptcy. They claim that the owners do not admit to the economic crises or even prevailing recession and insist on getting paid their rent in full. Furthermore, the owners have sometimes doubled the rent although they obtained the land and commercial stores at very low prices, ranging from $1 to $10 for one square metre and benefited from the subsidy that was offered during the toppled regime. The protests were organised following Sayyed Megahed, head of Sharm el-Sheikh Tenants' Coalition, setting himself on fire, objecting to the electricity failure at his store and the owner refusing to cut the rent. Hatem Helal, a coalition member, remarked that tenants face huge losses, while the owners will not admit to any financial crisis. He noted that the rents of stores range from LE10,000 ($1,666) to LE40,000 per month and have doubled during the previous couple of years. He added that absence of regulation and follow up by Ministry of Tourism has contributed to the resort's recession. According to Ihab el-Gabri, another tenant, all commercial stores in Sharm el-Sheikh suffer from high rents, reaching LE50,000 in some instances. So, some tenants are forced to avoid paying taxes and/or have to raise their prices in a depressed tourist market. In the wake of the January 25 events, the revenues have decreased to their lowest point, although each tenant is committed to paying employees' salaries, flat rents and electricity bills. El-Sayyed Amin, another tenant, stressed to Al-Ahrar, the newspaper of the Liberals' party, that the rents of commercial stores, aquatic games centres and tourism activities and facilities at hotels have reached astronomical prices. Amin presented tenants' demands to the Ministry of Tourism, namely to form a committee to regulate hotels, to issue new rent contracts associated with a hotel's room rate, which should not be less than three years in duration, and set up an association for the tourist activities' tenants. The South Sinai Governorate needs to protect tenants of stores and different tourist activities as well as examine unjust contracts and high rents to guarantee the tenants' rights in accordance with the tourist market Sharm el-Sheikh. The Governor of South Sinai has already refused exaggerated rents asked of tenants by some owners.
