A visit to South Sinai was the reason behind changing life of Doctor Rabei who decided not to return back to his village in Assiut and work in the tourism industry.
“My story with South Sinai, specifically in Nuweiba, started when I came in a visit with one of my relatives who was opening a tourist agency there after restoring our land in the eighties. I fell in love with that place and hoped to return back there,” Rabei says.
After two years of frequent trips to the valleys and mountains of the south, Rabei felt more and more connected to the place.
“I finished my college and took my final decision not to work in medical profession and return back to South Sinai. I went on trips as an amatuer until I obtained experience” Rabei adds. “I decided to work in what I like, especially that foreign tourist agencies prefered to work with an Egyptian guide, who has an experience like that of Israeli guides who used to live there by then. I expanded my work gradually. Today I have my own tourist agency.”
“The longest trip we spent was forty days long between mountains. Tourism in Nuweiba and Taba is not only at the coast. There are religious and historic trips too,” Rabei says.
Despite the recession hitting tourism, Rabei is still optimistic that the situation will improve. “It’s a general condition. With some attention and organization, everything should recover. We need to fix the international road that has been affected by floods. Nuweiba's closed airport should be reopened,” he adds.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
