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Safety in Egypt
By
Jimmy Dunn
Where it not for the number of emails I receive from
people asking about safety in Egypt, this month's Editor's
Commentary would be addressing other matters. But I
have received hundreds of letters asking my opinion on how
safe it is to travel in Egypt. Yet, I have also
received hundreds of emails from tourists returning from
Egypt, and have not been told of one problem that any of
them experienced due to the recent problems in the Middle
East. Most have told me that there where simply no
indications that any problems were going on. But we continue
to get considerable email asking us about safety, so we will
elaborate.
Egypt has, and continues to be one of the friendliest
nations in the world to visit. For me, it has always
seemed that even the most average Egyptian is, by nature, a
gracious host. I often use the example of me walking down a
side street in Cairo with my camera and being met by an
Egyptian on his way to work. He greets me with
"welcome", and a warm smile, making me feel that
the words were not just said, but meant. This has
happened to me on many occasions, in a city of 16 million
people, but could you imagine a similar occurrence in a the
much smaller city of New York, or even smaller Miami?
Today, Egypt is a very safe tourist haven for many
different reasons. First of all, there is the crime
rate, which is virtually zero in Egypt. Traveling
around in the US, and many other western nations, a tourists
most likely threat is from criminals, and indeed, many
tourists have and continue to be subjected to violent
criminal problems in western tourist destinations. But
crime is not a real problem in Egypt, and the likelihood of
a tourists in Egypt coming into contact with this threat
hardly exists at all.
The second reason tourists are so safe in Egypt is simply
because the government exerts a high priority on their
safety. Unlike many western nations, tourism is one of
the top economic contributors to the Egyptian economy, and
as such, the government of Egypt takes many steps to ensure
that tourists have a safe and enjoyable visit. In
fact, there is an entire division of police devoted to
nothing other than making sure of this.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Egypt is more and
more a modern member of the world community. Not just
the country, or the government, but the people
themselves. Many if not most of the people that
tourists come into contact with are well educated and even
sophisticated by world standards. Upon their first
visit to Egypt, most tourists will be surprised by the
number of cell phones, the modern dress, the new automobiles
and the amount of western media and interaction to be found
everywhere. In other words, Egypt is not, and doesn't
seem so far away from home as it once did.
So don't take my word for it. Find a friend who has
recently visited Egypt and he or she will most likely tell
you the same as I, "Go, have fun, find the roots of
civilization", and as the Australians would say,
"No worries". |
