Ayoon Wa Azan (On the benefits of cultural tourism)

Is it possible to “Explore New Cultural Horizons for Tourism”? The Bahraini Minister of Culture Shaikha Mai Al Khalifa thinks the answer is yes, as she convened a conference under this title which brought together some of the most prominent experts in the fields of tourism and culture. It is my opinion that Arab tourists travel for a multitude of reasons, of which culture is not one. Some Arab tourists may even ‘draw their swords’ if they hear the word culture. Shaikha Mai has already made several achievements that seemed unattainable before, from the Qalat al-Bahrain site and museum, to listing the latter on the World Heritage List in 2008, to the Pearl Road Project, which is also on the list, and Bab al-Bahrain, which has been restored and revived. Bahrain was chosen as the capital of Arab Media for 2013-2014, and was the Capital of Arab Culture last year. I closely followed the efforts of Minister of State for Media Affairs Samira Rajab to snatch this achievement. I want to stay with the topic of cultural tourism. I live in London, a city famous around the world for being the capital of ‘libel tourism,’ as the law here favors the accused and demands the accuser to provide the evidence. Though this is a staple element of the laws of both the heavens and the earth, it is today absent in Egypt, for example, despite the fact that the country is now ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood. Being Islamists, they all know that “the onus of proof is on the accuser.” Instead, Cairo under their administration has become the “capital of complaints.” Now, every person so inclined may issue a statement or lodge a complaint against anyone they like, accusing them of anything from bribery and corruption to treason. And when such complaints are proven to be false, those who made them still go home without being held to account for their lies. If these people made those false claims in a place like London, they would have soon found that they have lost their homes. Indeed, those who lose such cases end up paying legal expenses, which in Britain may amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds (sterling not Egyptian), and sometimes even more. Returning to the topic of cultural tourism, the conference program included a performance by Hiba Kawas, with her magnificent operatic voice. Kawas sat next to me at a dinner and I tried to sound cultivated, and tried to recall what I know about operas which my daughter used to drag me to. I told Hiba with a straight face that I could not determine the range of her voice, and whether it was Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, or Alto. She said it was Soprano, but I did not say that those three words were all I knew about opera! Aside from the concert, and the luncheons or dinners, there were sessions inaugurated by the former Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Culture Mohamed Benaissa, who spoke about the significance of the cultural aspect of tourism, especially with the advancement of technology and rising awareness. Benaissa was speaking from experience, as president of the Asilah annual forum, perhaps the oldest forum of its kind in the Arab world. I heard from Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), some information that rectified what I thought I knew about global tourism, which I believed was dominated by the wealthy. Dr. Rifai said that in 2005, about a billion tourists, that is, one out of every seven people in the planet, crossed their home countries’ border to another country. This means that if each tourist on average spent $1,000, global tourism would be worth around $1 trillion each year. Numbers and figures aside, what I know is that the Arab countries are important tourist destinations that are internationally popular, from Morocco to the Arabian Gulf. Tourism is still thriving in some of our countries, but I remember a day when I would ask friends who own major hotels in Cairo and Beirut to help me find a room where I wanted. Now, some of the biggest hotels in both capitals are struggling, with the occupancy rate less than 30 percent in some cases. Egypt is home to one-third of the ruins of the entire ancient world, while Lebanon is the Arabs’ favorite tourist destination. But there is a tourism disaster in both countries for which we are responsible before anyone else. Indeed, the first and foremost prerequisite for a successful tourist sector is security and safety. People don’t travel abroad to labor and risk their lives, but to rest and have fun. Returning to Shaikha Mai Al Khalifa, she is very active and barely finishes one project that she starts another, sometimes pursuing several projects at the same time. My visit to Bahrain coincided with a tour by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb in the Gulf. I said to Shaikha Mai that she reminded me of him, and she gave me a surprised look. I explained further, and said that both she and he were doing their jobs to the fullest extent possible, and that if every Arab official was like them, the Arabs would by now have been living in that utopia that only exists in the minds of philosophers. Recall that cultural tourism is not a new idea. 1,400 years ago, a poem attributed to Imam Ali bin Abi Talib praised travelling in search of learning, discovery, and one’s livelihood, calling on people to pursue such travels. Will we achieve what Imam Ali did not see happen? I doubt it. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.