Will I Travel To Egypt Again? No, Of Course Not…

Last week I shared how I thought Cairo International Airport (CAI) is the worst major airport in the world. There was no ill-intent behind the post, but it was just intended to be a topic of conversation, like the tens of thousands of other blog posts I’ve published over time.

I didn’t even think my observations were that controversial, and more readers agreed with me than not. Thinking Cairo Airport isn’t good is about as controversial as stating that the DMV doesn’t have the world’s best service.

But fast forward to the past several days, where this has somehow become a national story in Egypt. The Egyptian government is angry at me, has threatened me, and has even released video footage of me “enjoying” the airport to prove that I’m lying (by posting footage of seven minutes of the roughly four hours I spent at the airport — and yes, those seven minutes do look pretty pleasant!).

The government has gone so far as to suggest that I was on someone else’s payroll to slander the airport. It’s completely nuts.

I’ll be steering clear of Egypt until further notice

Following this incident, several readers asked if I’d still travel to Egypt, and/or urged me not to. I wanted to talk about that in a bit more detail in this post. First of all, thanks to everyone for their feedback, and to those who expressed concern at the situation… I appreciate it!

I want to say in no uncertain terms that I’ll be avoiding Cairo and all of Egypt for the foreseeable future, and won’t be visiting the country or even transiting an airport there. I’m basically viewing myself as a persona non grata in the country. I don’t want to go so far as to say that I’ll “never” return to Egypt, but unless there’s some useful dialogue that comes of this (unlikely) or unless there’s a regime change at some point, I’m just not going to risk it.

I don’t ultimately know what would happen to me if I traveled to Egypt again, but the government clearly stated that it will “take all necessary legal action against those who attempt to harm the credibility and reputation of the civil aviation sector through unfounded allegations.” Since the government insists that my claims are unfounded, and even states that I’m on some foreign entity’s payroll to slander the airport, it’s just not a risk that I want to put myself (or my family) through.

Now, I’ve seen some people suggest that I should be scared way beyond that, saying I should be worried to travel anywhere in the Middle East, and one person even pointing out that the United States and Egypt have an extradition treaty, etc. While I appreciate the general warnings, that’s not something that’s causing me any concern as of now:

• I don’t think this is what extradition treaties are made for
• In the scheme of the enemies of Egypt, I have to imagine that I still rank pretty low
• I’m deliberate and careful with the Middle Eastern countries that I travel to, so unless there’s some information I’m not privy to, I don’t have concerns that this will cause me issues with other countries

I still can’t believe the Egyptian government’s response

I’ve been blogging for nearly 17 years, and I’ve shared my fair share of travel opinions and takes on the blog. While I’ve had all kinds of parties take issue with what I write (as you’d expect), I’ve never in my life had as unwarranted (in my mind) of a response as the Egyptian government’s attack on me. To start:

• Clearly the Egyptian government isn’t familiar with the Streisand effect, and how they just brought a lot more attention to the issues at Cairo Airport than I ever could have
• I’m just some random blogger, so to have a government come after me in this way is just such a disproportionate response; you’d think I was acting on behalf of some foreign government that is an enemy of Egypt
• I shared my sincerely held beliefs about Cairo Airport, and I didn’t say a single thing that was dishonest or that I didn’t believe; I think it’s really important to be honest when sharing experiences, because I operate under the assumption that if I lie, someone will hold me accountable, and I deserve that
• As longtime OMAAT readers can attest to, I’m not someone who is seeking out drama, unlike some other bloggers and vloggers, who seem to constantly have problematic run-ins; since the Aegon Mykonos incident over three years ago, I’ve had basically no drama, and that’s quite some time for someone who travels as much as I do

It honestly didn’t faze me much initially, but the more I think about it, the wilder I think this whole thing is. How crazy is it that a government spent a countless number of hours finding CCTV footage of me all over the airport, and then selectively published parts of it to make it look like the airport is perfect?

What an absolutely shocking invasion of privacy. Like, it’s one thing to publish footage if someone committed an actual crime at an airport, but to publish footage of me and broadcast it on the national news in Egypt when I quite literally didn’t commit any crimes is just next level.

I also love the number of government trolls (or something) who are coming here and commenting about how I’ve been “exposed” for lying, like this one:

You are a liar supported by dirty Ethiopia and you will be punished by law  and banned from entering Egypt forever

Let me once again emphasize that seven minutes of my roughly four hours at Cairo Airport were published. Of course the airport looks super pleasant based on that footage, because the government cherry picked the seven minutes that make it look the best.

But what a truly bizarre invasion of privacy. Online complaints about Cairo Airport are absolutely endless, so to think that any foreigner with no agenda can be publicly shamed and attacked for their perception of an airport is kind of wild.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s anything else that can be done to hold the government responsible here. I mean, Egypt is a country that has flights and travelers from all over the world, including multiple nonstop flights from the United States.

For example, Thailand has extreme defamation laws, but at least they’re clearly published, so travelers should make themselves familiar with them. In the case of Egypt, there are (to my knowledge) no laws against sharing your opinion and experiences traveling through an airport. I mean, heck, government-owned EgyptAir sends out post-flight surveys soliciting feedback on the experience.

Even within the context of different governments taking different approaches, Egypt’s response seems extreme, in terms of threatening me, making up false accusations against me, and publishing video footage of me.

Will this incident change my content going forward?

I’m trying to reflect on whether I learned anything from this incident, or if anything about this will change the way I approach content in the future. Maybe my opinion will evolve over time, but initially I’m just viewing this incident as a very strange outlier.

I’ve been blogging for a very long time, and for the most part, haven’t had too much drama. I mean, I receive some consistent threats that I won’t get in to, but it’s the internet, so what can you really expect? As I reflect on what I could take away from this incident, here are a few thoughts:

• I’m not suddenly going to stop being objective, or stop sharing negative thoughts on something, if it reflects how I feel; while most of my posts highlight the “best” rather than the “worst” of things, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either approach
• I’ll continue to be careful about the timing of publishing negative things, so that I don’t publish them when I’m in a country where it could pose a risk (as I generally do)
• This certainly makes me hyper aware of how some of the more “controversial” governments out there may take serious issue with what ultimately amounts to a random person’s opinion

I’m certainly open to other lessons as well, and like I said, my feelings may evolve over time.

Bottom line

It has certainly been an interesting few days here on the blog. A post sharing my general dislike of Cairo Airport somehow made national headlines in Egypt, and caused the government to accuse me of all kinds of things, including taking a trip “aimed at undermining Cairo Airport.” The government has even threatened to take legal action against me.

I’ve dealt with quite a bit of negative feedback and even many threats on the blog over the years, though this one definitely takes the cake.

What’s your take on this situation, and what my takeaway should be?