Authoritarian governments are not known for taking kindly to criticism. And in Egypt, official skins can be especially thin: deepening repression has muffled most dissent and sent tens of thousands of perceived political opponents to jail, including one for posting a doctored photo of the president with Mickey Mouse ears.
But this month, Egypt found itself facing an opponent it could not silence so easily.
“Cairo Airport: Is There a Worse Major Airport?” the travel blogger Ben Schlappig pondered in a no-holds-barred post on his website, One Mile at a Time. He cited the “actively hostile and rude” staff, the “endless requests for tips,” the “disorder” in line, the “weak” dining options and the “yuck” lounges.
“My visits have varied from inconvenient and disorganized, to outright chaotic,” he wrote. “I just can’t think of a single redeeming quality about the airport.” As if salting the wound, he ended by comparing Cairo’s airport unfavorably with that of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, with which Egypt is locked in a yearslong dispute over water rights.
It was a verdict almost guaranteed to enrage Egypt’s government, which is making a concerted push to double its tourism numbers, trying to reach 30 million annual visitors by 2028. Besides employing one in 12 Egyptian workers, the tourism industry delivers desperately needed foreign currency to a country reeling from a prolonged economic crisis.
New luxury hotels are going up around Cairo and Egypt’s sunny beach destinations. The government has announced plans to refurbish historic attractions. And a long-awaited new museum of antiquities is opening in stages — and to positive reviews — next to the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Against this march of progress, Mr. Schlappig’s complaints might seem like a minor annoyance. Yet Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry reacted with fury, issuing a more than 1,100-word response this past week, upbraiding Mr. Schlappig for his “unfounded, destructive accusations” and suggesting it was prepared to take legal action.
As evidence, it laid out a step-by-step accounting of the blogger’s most recent visit to the airport, drawn from what the ministry called a thorough review of security camera footage. From his first security scan to his arrival at a gate, it said, all went smoothly, without any contentious interactions with staff.
By turns self-congratulatory, suspicious and threatening in tone, the ministry defended the airport’s quality, saying it holds “nearly” four stars from an independent evaluator. It cast doubt on Mr. Schlappig’s complaints, asserting, “the photo of the bathroom he posted does not correspond to the bathroom he used.” It questioned his choices, asking, “Is it reasonable for a passenger to visit two lounges before a single flight?” Finally, it ended by accusing him of harboring sinister motives, saying the sole purpose of his visit appeared to be “undermining Cairo Airport.”
But the blogger quickly fired back, saying he had based his assessment on many visits, not only the last. In a rebuttal, he said he had photographed the relevant bathroom on a previous visit and had spent a few hours in Cairo on his way to Ethiopia, not to expose the airport.
“This is perhaps the most bizarre response I’ve ever seen from a government to any negative story I’ve written,” wrote Mr. Schlappig. “I know Egypt isn’t necessarily the most pro-free speech place on Earth, but I wasn’t expecting a Pyongyang-esque response,” he added, referring to the capital of North Korea.
Despite the many reasonably priced premium fares available from Cairo that had previously brought him there, he said, he would be avoiding Egypt for the foreseeable future. (Mr. Schlappig did not respond to requests for comment.)
Online, it has never been hard to find other travelers saying they are done with Egypt. An American YouTuber who reviews food was similarly uncomplimentary after he and his equipment were detained on arrival in Egypt in 2022, posting a video titled, “NIGHTMARE Egypt Food Tour!! POLICE Shut Us Down!!” He advised his 11 million subscribers, “Don’t come here!”
The latest saga drew heavy sighs from some in Egypt’s tourism industry.
“Unfortunately, everything published on social media affects tourists,” said Mina Samir, a longtime tour guide.
But Egypt may not need to worry too much about Mr. Schlappig.
A record-breaking 7.1 million tourists visited Egypt in the first half of this year, according to official figures, apparently undeterred by the war in the next-door Gaza Strip and other regional turmoil. Attractions like the new museum, as well as growing interest in Egypt’s deserts and historical sites beyond the pharaonic ones, were likely to keep boosting the flow, Mr. Samir and other tour guides said.
But, they said, bureaucracy and unqualified guides — and, yes, a disorganized airport — still presented obstacles.
Some pro-government users on social media, as well as government-aligned media outlets, dismissed the complaints, as did travelers who said they enjoyed their Egyptian travels.
But others lamented what they said was a self-inflicted injury.
“All the Egyptian media are scrambling to defend Egypt’s sad airport,” a Facebook user named Mohamed el-Gazzar posted. “Guys, tourism is the only thing that works well these days … we don’t need this right now.”
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