Or should the title be "Bake on the Beach"? Because that is my interpretation of beach hotels in Tunisia.
The large hotel we stayed in caters particularly to Russian and Eastern European clients (looking very pink or red after a day on the beach), although we met a few French clients, and Tunisian families came as well.The Tourism field is truly interesting to study. Last year I taught Tunisian students about the possibilities of tourism (medical tourism, sports tourism, cultural tourism, etc.), however, with the rise of terrorism and fear, much has been lost. Here's how things look today: groups are flown in, escorted to the hotel where everything is provided (meals, drinks, entertainment, spa facilities, etc.) and they never leave this closed world until it's time to take the plane home.
In addition, tourists paying with Euros are paying less for the trip and stay in a hotel than Tunisians pay for their stay (no airfare included).
This is a sad state of affairs. Although some hotels seem to have plenty of clients, this does not seem to benefit the community, except for a few jobs (mostly low grade). The restaurants, markets, and craft stores that depend on tourism are struggling, many have closed or else they have cut back on personnel.
Cultural institutions are struggling as well. The day I visited the Bardo Museum in Tunis with my grandkids, there were maybe six visitors, whereas they used to have crowds of at least two or three thousand a day. There was nobody at the wonderful Uthina ruins, when we had our yearly visit.
True, tourists can spend a peaceful vacation on a nice Mediterranean beach, however, they learn nothing of Tunisia and do not get to know any Tunisians. Appreciating a certain cultural and intellectual level, I can only comment with a caricature--just drawing what I see...
6 comments:
I wonder if it is fear or just a lack of interest. At least they were not all sitting there texting on their i-phones.
Maybe it is a generational thing.
I tried to change the dates on my tickets but all flights from London to Tunis were fully booked until September. It's good that hotels and resorts are busy there, God willing things will settle down and get better.
Years ago my late husband & I went on a business trip to Acapulco. The resort there was showing off its facilities to entice businesses to hold conferences there. As you rescind, you never had to leave their compound, several restaurants & bars, pools, beach, even a golf course. Lots of warnings about going into the city alone, discouraged actually. Carefully orchestrated bus tours were given. They wanted you to have a safe and positive experience and as little integration with the locals as possible. But they could not keep us from seeing some of the rampant poverty. So I've been to Mexico but like your visitors I hardly got to experience Mexico.
It's certainly not my idea of a holiday to sit on a beach all the time and I love to explore the local architecture and culture. However, the world has gone mad (or even more mad than usual) and who knows when things will settle down and people will feel empowered to travel again. The terrorism has moved on - tourists have been looking out for gun, knife and bomb wielding killers but when an ordinary lorry can be used as a weapon to kill large numbers of people it is hard for the visitors to know how to keep safe - and for the authorities it is hard to know how to keep their visitors safe. Of course this kind of disruption is what the terrorists want ...
I haven't been to blog in a little while so nice to just sit and enjoy your drawings, stories and sense of humor. Ah..so sad what has happened there. I feel for the business owners and the employees. Life is hard enough with out fear ruling/ruining things.
It's really disgusting how a few miserable human beings (and I hesitate to use the word 'human') have spoiled so much for the rest of us who have done nothing to deserve it. Part of the experience of travel should be to be able to experience the local culture and not be kept in a closed environment like a bunch of hothouse plants. It affects so many people - and definitely not in a good way.
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