Khalaf Al-Harbe Okaz This summer was exceptional for Gulf tourists in Europe. They did whatever was impossible to do and recorded it modulated by sound and light. They did the camel walk along the poshest avenues of Europe. They stole ducks, slaughtered and cooked them without mercy before the eyes of the camera. They lit fires to cook along lakeshores and smoked the hookah sitting on the grounds next to the Eiffel Tower. Performing the camel walk and asking Europeans to join dancing to Arabic folk music may be fine as long as the Gulf tourists were presenting their weird music spontaneously to spectators, like tourists from other parts of the world, such as Latin America or South Africa. However, stealing, slaughtering and cooking ducks, leaving garbage behind in public parks, violating the rules and disturbing neighbors are all acts of unacceptable behavior in Europe. This sort of behavior will leave a negative impression in the minds of the people of Europe not only about the Gulf citizens but the Arabs and Muslims in general. This will also increase their hatred and escalate further their already hostile attitudes toward Arabs and their causes. This may also prompt some European governments to take stern measures against the influx of tourists from the region to their countries as Austria has already done. According to press reports, the legislature of Salzburg, one of Austria's nine federal states, on a proposal from the representatives of the city of Zilamsi, has asked the Vienna government to cut down the number of tourist visas granted to citizens of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The legislature has also asked the Austrian embassies in Riyadh and Kuwait City to supply visa applicants with booklets about the Austrian culture. An 8-page booklet available in both Arabic and English advises the Gulf tourists against haggling over prices in shops. It said bargaining may be common in the Gulf markets but is not entertained in Austria, where prices are fixed. It also said it was not acceptable to eat sitting on the floor in hotel rooms. With all respect to the Austrian culture, I would say this habit is not easy for the Gulf tourists to give up because it is a deeply rooted in the region's culture. There is a third enigma, which is difficult to solve. In Austria, it is magical to smile. Austrians expect every individual to put on a smile when meeting others. In our cultures, when someone who you do not know smiles at you, he will be looked down on as a total idiot with little or no brains. This is a marked cultural difference. The Austrians consider the smile to be a door-opener while we consider it naivety. People are, however, free to invest their smiles in any way they want to. The Gulf tourist spends an average of $327 a day, which is double the daily expenditure of the European tourist. Despite this, the Austrian Tourism Commission has asked the hotels in Salzburg and Zilamsi to give priority in reservations to the Russian, Japanese and American tourists. They also asked for increasing the rent prices for Gulf tourists because their wealth does not give them the right to break the law. In the Czech Republic demonstrations were organized, calling for kicking out the Arabs from the country following the ghastly violations they committed in a famous spa. Lastly, I like to point out that the Gulf citizen was welcome at airports around the world before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. There was a complete turnaround afterward. However, things started to cool down slowly and became normal with entry visas for study, tourism or medical treatment to Europe and America becoming easily available. But a group of Gulf citizens went back to their old habits as if they wanted to deliberately ruin their image abroad.
