Egyptian tourism minister bemoans pushy merchants
Pushy bazaar merchants and poor waiter service are a bigger threat to Egypt's tourism industry than the bombs of Islamic militants, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah told AFP in an interview.
When I was in Egypt in 1993, there was all this crap going on about militants attacking tourists blah blah... well, aside from an alleged bomb threat to a Western-style nightclub at the hotel we stayed at, we didn't encounter any crazy militants. For the most part, we found Egyptians to be quite friendly towards tourists...
We did encounter the pushy merchants. And damn, they were obnoxious. The most annoying ones were the ones who would physically push/drag you into their stores, maybe serve you a drink (always refuse these!), and expect you to buy something before you leave... The guys at Khan el-Khalili who swarm you and put a flower necklace/bracelet on you and expect payment are also rather irritating... blah...
Otherwise, I don't remember customer service (restaurants, hotels etc.) being too bad, but of course this trip was 14 years ago...
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