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Reinventing Aqaba
Venture Magazine
1 September 2006
Besides a great beach and adequate accommodation, Aqaba - now a special economic zone for five years - offers little else on the side.
A two-day family escape to Aqaba has been a wonderful experience for all involved but allow met to say this: We are not even close to beating Sharm El Sheikh, yet! And when it comes to value-for-money, Aqaba remains a pricey adventure and not for every one.
The thrifty Jordanian tourist will pay accolades to package tours to Turkey, Egypt, Syria and even Bulgaria especially when it comes to money spent and enjoyment received.
For a modest family of four, the two-day stay cost me approximately JD1000, including petrol for my car, two regular rooms at the Mövenpick with breakfast included and the cost of extra meals, water sports and shopping. I would pay the same for at least three nights at a Sharm El Sheikh resort, including airfare, meals and entertainment.
Besides a great beach and adequate accommodation, Aqaba - now a special economic zone for five years - offers little else on the side. Duty-free shopping is overrated; the new malls offer mostly cheap, Chinese-made goods one could find in Amman at roughly the same price. And other than hotel restaurants, Aqaba's gastronomical offerings are poor, to say the least.
Water sports are expensive; a family could easily spend JD100 in half an hour, and excursions are limited and banal. Night life is non-existent, especially for married couples looking for innocent nocturnal entertainment. And yet, Aqaba has a distinctive character making it a delightful and peaceful city.
But a new Aqaba is in the making, though visitors will have to wait for few years before seeing the first glimpse of the soon-to-be-transformed little port city. From what has been announced and publicized, Aqaba is being reinvented and is on its way to join overhauled coastal cities such as Dubai, Singapore and even Hong Kong, on a much smaller scale of course.
The loss of the city's native character is a controversial issue for some. With mega-projects mostly underway, the face of Aqaba - Jordan's only access to the open sea - will change big time. Whether that will make the port city more exciting and affordable remains to be seen. Certainly, the Aqaba we were accustomed to for so many years will cease to exist. Marinas, artificial lagoons, golf courses and condominiums make up the future of this little town on the Red Sea.
God knows what the environmentalists will think of all this, but I can foretell that the city's future is about to make a major leap forward. Aside from its growing importance as a port city, Aqaba's tourism agenda is already full. In few years' time, we expect to see more hotels, outlets and shopping centers opening up and the bet is that more tourists and dwellers will arrive.
But will they? With big money pouring in, the risks will go up and when it comes to playing the tourism game, Aqaba will have to jump in with the big players: Sharm and other Egyptian Red Sea resorts, Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel - and even Dubai. Each offers a distinctive edge over the other - price, quality, variety and overall package. Aqaba will have to redefine itself so as to deliver on what it promises to its visitors. Mediocre shopping, tacky service and expensive meals will just not do; Aqaba will have to mature as it evolves into a major player in the region's multi-billion tourism industry.
But Aqaba is more than a tourist destination. It remains an important regional port, and with shortage of coastal land, the challenge for the special zone's planners remains unchanged; to strike a delicate balance between the port's growing needs for expansion, and those mounted by real estate developers and investors. All this is taking place in an ecologically fragile area where environmental catastrophes could be lurking at the next corner.
Aqaba's developers should do well to look closely at a nearby case-study; the Israeli port city of Eilat a few kilometers to the west. An international study on the causes of pollution in the waters of Eilat published in 2001 came to the conclusion that there are 10 factors contributing to pollution in the Gulf: phosphate dust, sewage, fish-farms, groundwater inputs, siltation, marina activities, oil, tourist diving activities, water temperature and port-ballast water. The study estimated that about 500 tons of phosphate ore are dumped annually into the sea from the loading facilities on the Jordanian side. Hotels on man-made lagoons in Eilat are responsible for sewage seepage problems compounding the pollution crisis within the Gulf.
Fast-track development is also the prime cause behind the degrading state of the coral reef in the Gulf of Aqaba, which in some areas has all but disappeared. Egypt has a lot of experience in that area, especially in Ras Mohammad and the Sharm areas in Sinai.
Progress is coming to Aqaba and that's the good news, but new challenges are quickly making a debut. It would be a great pity to lose sight of the whole picture as we concentrate our efforts on creating the futuristic postcard scene with its artificial lagoons, extensive marinas and towering condominiums. Let's not lose Aqaba as we build the new one!
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