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Dr. Atef Abdel Latif, a member of the Marsa Alam and South Sinai investors' associations, said that the imposition of any tax anywhere in the world is followed by the addition of a new service or the improvement of an existing one. He stressed his support for the state's direction in what it sees as being in the public interest, but said it must provide a service to the customer, as happens in all countries of the world, which is not what happens in Egypt.
Abdel Latif pointed out that the decision to raise the tax on air tickets came as a surprise, causing confusion among flight booking companies, as it was issued at the end of the week, and no official correspondence about the decision had reached the companies even though it was issued about 5 days ago. Therefore, any decision should have been prepared for, and the state should set a date for its implementation, rather than what happened, with it being issued without anyone knowing anything about it. As a result, some media outlets published incorrect information, such as talk of a 400-pound increase in ticket prices, which is untrue; the media can be excused given the lack of clarity and the absence of information, until the Ministry of Civil Aviation clarified the full details in an official statement the day after the decision.
The member of the South Sinai and Marsa Alam investors' associations called for the development of services at Cairo Airport, which receives millions of visitors, by training staff to receive guests, carefully selecting cleaning and administrative workers, expanding and organizing traffic in the car park for both tourist vehicles and the public, which can no longer accommodate the number of arrivals or departures, and setting schedules for cleaning work, so that workers no longer stand in the restrooms holding tissues to offer tourists in return for "baksheesh", because this gives tourists a negative impression.
