Egypt has opened its first alcohol-free hotel at the popular beach resort of Hurghada in hopes of bringing conservative Muslim tourists to the destination.
Le Roi Hotel, one of the first alcohol-free hotels on Egypt's Red Sea coast, opened this weekend, Reuters reports. The three-star hotel has 134 rooms and 35 suites and even has an entire floor designated for women only. The top floor is staffed with female security and has a women-only swimming pool. This is done because conservative Muslims believe unrelated males and females should be segregated.
This comes after liberals voiced their concerns that Islamists who came to power last year were trying to impose conservative ideologoy and limit freedom. Liberals worry that a hotel such as this may make foreign tourists avoid the area, which is a big concern considering tourism already dropped during the protests that lead to Hosni Mubarak being brought down in 2011.
Yasser Kamal, the owner of the hotel, tried to downplay the political
significance of the hotel.
"The idea of launching a hotel without alcohol is not to adhere to any particular movement, but rather to provide a new kind of tourism. Tourists have alcohol in their countries, and they must find other alternatives in Hurghada for the purpose of diversity," Kamal told the MENA state news agency.
As seen in a YouTube video, the hotel's manager celebrated by lining up bottles of alcohol on the curb outside the building and then pouring them out and smashing them.
Most Islamic scholars say that Islam prohibits alcohol consumption. President Mohamed Mursi's government tried to increase the tax on alcohol in December, but they backed down on the move after receiving heavy criticism.
However in April, the Civil Aviation Ministry said that it was considering banning the sale of alcohol in duty-free shops at airports as citizens and ministry officials received several complaints. The New Urban Communities Authorities also announced that they want to stop issuing licenses for alcohol sales in new Cairo suburban settlements following complaints from the locals.
Yet some who rely on tourism, aren't too happy with these decision. Roughly 14.5 million people visited Egypt in 2010, which earned the country $12.5 billion. In the following year, when the protests were going on, there were only 9.8 million tourists and the country hasn't been able to boost their tourist numbers since then.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
