this is what i do at work
an email to a member re: a cancelled trip to Egypt:
Dear PAssenger X,
You have every right to be frustrated/distraught, and always feel free to email/call me about it. I will tell you right now you're not alone. While I'm grateful that the passengers and our members are understanding about the situation, NO ONE is thrilled, let me tell you....
Right after we canceled and the Israel/Hamas situation became more and more violent and formal, we heard that Egypt /the Egyptian government formally "took sides" condemning Hamas' actions. Which, while it's great for their tourism with Israel, doesn't make them popular in the eyes of other Arab countries, particularly after countries like Iran have formally supported the PLO/Hamas and have asked all middle eastern Arabs to do the same. Egypt also just changed their security measures to get rid of a lot of the convoy securities that they had both in mainland sites and Sinai sites. Which means folks are traveling through the Sinai much more "on their own" which would be fine, except now there are some serious questions about potential violence in the Red Sea area/Mediterranean coastal area.
That being said, I'm not confident that if we were to go, we'd be seeing all the sites, doing everything we could be doing particularly in that region. Not to mention the Jordan crossing might be a very different experience.
I too feel for the Egyptian operators- they did work hard on this and everyone loses out. I am confident we will go again- plenty of people have expressed interest, but this time it was the economic situation that got in many people's way. Hopefully next time, any delays or problems aren't due to violence. We just felt it was better to be an organization that canceled a trip in response to economic downturn than be the organization that asked for more money to accommodate it, and put people in a situation overseas where they felt the pressure of their own financial situation and couldn't have as good of a time as they wanted. Double edged sword indeed, but I felt like it was the right call.
I appreciate your understanding, sympathize (if not empathize) with you, and we will be sure to get you on our program soon. We will undoubtedly be looking at this program (and others) for future years.
Take care and happy new year,
-Sarah
who said i had a meaningless desk job, again? who was it?
oh thats right
NO ONE.
bam, daily interactions with middle eastern politics.
Dear PAssenger X,
You have every right to be frustrated/distraught, and always feel free to email/call me about it. I will tell you right now you're not alone. While I'm grateful that the passengers and our members are understanding about the situation, NO ONE is thrilled, let me tell you....
Right after we canceled and the Israel/Hamas situation became more and more violent and formal, we heard that Egypt /the Egyptian government formally "took sides" condemning Hamas' actions. Which, while it's great for their tourism with Israel, doesn't make them popular in the eyes of other Arab countries, particularly after countries like Iran have formally supported the PLO/Hamas and have asked all middle eastern Arabs to do the same. Egypt also just changed their security measures to get rid of a lot of the convoy securities that they had both in mainland sites and Sinai sites. Which means folks are traveling through the Sinai much more "on their own" which would be fine, except now there are some serious questions about potential violence in the Red Sea area/Mediterranean coastal area.
That being said, I'm not confident that if we were to go, we'd be seeing all the sites, doing everything we could be doing particularly in that region. Not to mention the Jordan crossing might be a very different experience.
I too feel for the Egyptian operators- they did work hard on this and everyone loses out. I am confident we will go again- plenty of people have expressed interest, but this time it was the economic situation that got in many people's way. Hopefully next time, any delays or problems aren't due to violence. We just felt it was better to be an organization that canceled a trip in response to economic downturn than be the organization that asked for more money to accommodate it, and put people in a situation overseas where they felt the pressure of their own financial situation and couldn't have as good of a time as they wanted. Double edged sword indeed, but I felt like it was the right call.
I appreciate your understanding, sympathize (if not empathize) with you, and we will be sure to get you on our program soon. We will undoubtedly be looking at this program (and others) for future years.
Take care and happy new year,
-Sarah
who said i had a meaningless desk job, again? who was it?
oh thats right
NO ONE.
bam, daily interactions with middle eastern politics.