Travel is a force for good. Britain is wrong to bring tourists home

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/15/travel-britain-tourists-tourist-industry

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In June 2011, on an 80% empty London-to-Cairo jumbo jet, two Alexandria businessmen scoffed at British timidity. “That’s not how they built an empire!” said one. His friend laughed. “A century ago, mobs couldn’t scare them!”

Both men were hotel owners, extra sensitive to the reduced tourist flow since the beginning of the ill-named Arab spring. Terrorism, they told me, seriously deters tourists and investors, coming third after plague and war; but regime change they saw as different. After all, Londoners might be blown up any day on their way to work, so why forgo that Nile boat trip because Egypt had a new government? But then, on discovering my destination – Gaza, not Cairo or Luxor – both did a U-turn. How mad was I? Had no one told me about the terrorists ruling Gaza and the brigands controlling all Sinai roads?

Vox pop reactions to the foreign office’s diktat have modified my politically incorrect image of UK tourists en masse

I reassured them. Because of West Bank links I would be safe. And yes, I’d been warned that the bus service was in abeyance. Abdallah, a friend of a friend, would meet me at the airport and drive me the 250 miles to Rafah the next day.

Abdallah marvelled at my cabin bag: never before had he picked up a passenger carrying only hand luggage. In the morning he would talk to the hotel staff. Recently he had been forbidden from taking foreigners to Rafah. Too risky – robbery, kidnapping, even death ... but Abdallah was sensible about risk. Sinai four years ago was quite unlike Sinai now: trouble seemed too remote a possibility to be allowed to disrupt travel plans or diminish earnings.

Smog blurred the rising sun as we left Cairo’s rush hour behind. First came wide mango orchards, groves of date palms. Along the coast road – donkeys the only traffic – Israel’s victorious troops advanced into Egypt on 7 June 1967, and British troops towards Palestine in December 1916. We passed the rusting relics of many past conflicts. At the numerous army checkpoints no one was interested in Abdallah’s aged foreign passenger – another rusting relic.

In el-Arish, Sinai’s once flourishing tourist capital, nothing stirred. Soon after, Rafah border gate’s formidable structure rose above the desert. Our journey time pleased Abdallah: four and a half hours. He volunteered to drive me back to Cairo once my trip was finished.

Related: Tourists fly out of Tunisia amid row over Foreign Office advice for Britons to leave

One person’s risk can be another person’s thrill. We may reckon certain risks worthwhile, or simply be unaware of them. I personally would never risk being a war correspondent, panting around in bulletproof gear dodging bombs and shells. Nor would I venture into zones where kidnapping has become a hazard. I’ve no billionaire friends, and I’d like my granddaughters to enjoy a modest legacy.

Every day motorists expose themselves to the risk of sudden death – in the UK about 24,000 people a year are killed or seriously injured on the roads – yet they don’t (foolishly, in my opinion) sell their cars and get on their bikes.

What does not feel risky, to me, is trekking alone for months through roadless, townless mountain terrain, unable to communicate with the rest of the world. In contrast, some travellers feel uneasy if they don’t know exactly where they are going to spend the next night, and their precise time of arrival. Maybe it’s all to do with temperament, the old “half full, half empty” test.

Were I to visit Tunisia now, in spite of the British and Irish governments having summoned tourists home last week, I’d expect not to be attacked by terrorists, however “highly likely” this is said to be. After the attack on the beach in Sousse that left 38 people dead, the British government could have fulfilled its “duty of care” by admitting that Tunisia’s authorities have been worried since 2011 by militant Islam’s presence, an infiltration with which the local security forces are ill equipped to cope. Having been told the facts, individuals should surely be left to make their own decisions – as the Conservative MP Crispin Blunt said at the weekend.

It is clear that some of those returning from Tunisia angrily resented being nannied home in mid-holiday

Vox pop reactions to the foreign office’s diktat have modified my politically incorrect image of British tourists en masse. No longer do I visualise them lying on beaches anointing each other with sunblock while wondering which country they’re in, before heading off in search of fish and chips, strong tea and cheap beer; cluttering swimming-pools with garish plastic inflatable objects, watching soccer on telly and shouting impatiently at stupid people who can’t speak English.

It is clear that some of those returning from Tunisia angrily resented being nannied home mid-holiday, and had strong sympathy for those tourist industry workers reported to be devastated by the sudden exodus, which surely marked the end of their hopes for the 2015 tourist season.

Such reactions show that, even within the tourist industry’s cage, travel has the potential to improve international relations. What a shame the British and Irish governments have decided that well-informed citizens are incapable of making their own decisions about where to go.