The average tourist comes to the Austrian province of Salzburg for one of two reasons: Mozart or mountains. In recent times, however, there's been an ever-expanding number of vacationers who are allured neither by music and culture nor by hiking and skiing, but--unbelievable as it is--by rain. With their notorious bad-weather summers, the mountain valleys of Salzburg have become a popular destination for wealthy visitors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, who are seeking refuge from the broiling desert sun in the midst of rain-soaked lederhosen and edelweiss. Funnily enough, these Arabian tourists have picked my home town of Zell am See as their number-one vacation resort. Here's an eyewitness account of a comical clash of cultures.
From late spring to the beginning of the fasting month Ramadan, Zell am See is in a state of exception. Its narrow alleys and lakeside promenades are crowded with well-fed Arabian gentlemen in expensive designer clothes; veiled dark-haired beauties swathed in heavy perfume; hordes (and I mean hordes!) of romping curly-haired children answering to the names of Mohamed and Fatima. With Arabian tourists now accounting for almost 70,000 overnight stays per summer, the number for the small mountain town is three times higher than that of the city of Salzburg. Apart from the rain, the special allure of Zell am See lies in its natural overabundance of water, both in its liquid and frozen state: The Arabians spend hours bobbing up and down on the lake in their small pedal boats; they go tobogganing on the glacial snow of the surrounding mountain peaks; and, of course, they are particularly fond of the foaming cascades in Krimml, Austria's highest waterfalls. The wetter, the better!
Indulging themselves with their precious water, though, is not the only leisure-time activity of Arabian tourists. They also love shopping and eating. Caterers and entrepreneurs quickly detected this enormous money-making potential and have accordingly adapted to the needs of the Middle-eastern visitors: Menus and shop signs have prudently been translated into Arabic, wickedly expensive fashion boutiques have sprung up in the town center, and the quaint old taverns, whose culinary scope previously did not reach beyond schnitzel and sauerkraut, have now broadened their offerings with halal food.
However, while shopkeepers and restaurant owners are rejoicing over their turnovers, many locals are less enthusiastic about the exotic visitors. For the Pinzgau, a region that could well be called the hillbilly backcountry of Austria, the Arabian invasion has come quite as a shock. Touristically only accustomed to old-age pensioners and inobtrusive nuclear families, the country people still have a hard time getting used to the Arabian clans who have requisitioned their mountain idyll with kit and caboodle. Accordingly, many a local resident complains that the town center of Zell am See now looks more like a souk than a typical Austrian mountain resort--and, admittedly, they have a point. Some hoteliers have even gone so far as to ban Arabian tourists from their hotels, claiming that they would be too noisy, too messy, and simply unacceptable for all the other 'normal' guests.
Frankly, even for open-minded and tolerant people like me, the peculiarities of Arabian tourists can at times be rather annoying. My summer jobs in hotels and restaurants have repeatedly brought me into contact with Arabians, and not all of these experiences were very amusing. I can well remember one summer when I was working as a chambermaid and fell into despair every time I had to dust the hotel suites of Arabian tourists: When you entered their rooms, the usual scenario was an irredeemable muddle of clothes, children's toys, empty food packages, and--no joke--piles of sand and gravel, all spread out over the floor and furniture. For a chambermaid who has a maximum of three minutes to whizz through each room, this is, as you can imagine, quite a nightmare.
Another year, the Arabians ticked me off repeatedly during my summer at the local McDonald's restaurant. Not only did they order enormous amounts of food, they also uttered the most nerve-racking requests and extra wishes: Could they have Pepsi insted of Coke? Could they get their Big Mac without meat? And were we really absolutely sure that the French fries were prepared in vegetable oil? The highlights of the day were the instances when they drove up their rental minivans to the drive-through window: Once you had decoded their broken English and finally taken their order, you often had to prepare as many as twenty-five meals in one go (considering all the various extra wishes, of course) and at the same time scrape together the change for their 500 euro notes--and all that while the Arabian patriarch at the wheel withered you with a look that said "get a move on, you lazy bum" and forty other cars were honking and queuing up around the building. I can tell you, no matter whether in hotels or restaurants, Arabian customers meant at least three times as much work.
So, yes, Arabian tourists can drive you crazy--but they certainly also enrich the dull routine of country life. It's simply hilarious to watch them buying dirndls and listening to Austrian folk music, experiencing a culture that must be as exotic for them as Tahitian lifestyle for Austrians. One experience in particular made me take them to my heart: One bright summer afternoon a couple of years ago, I was riding my bike along the lakeshore when I was suddenly stopped by a group of three giggling young women in hijabs and floor-length gowns. Giddy with excitement, they pointed at my bike and, in a funny mixture of English and Arabic, asked me whether I would lend it to them for a few minutes. Not being in a hurry, I agreed and watched one of the girls get on the saddle. What I had'nt expected, though, was that the young Arabian lady had never ridden a bike in her life before. Hysterically screaming, she clung to the frame with her skirt tucked up in one hand, while her two friends were clutching the handlebars on either side. I was finally able to convince them to postpone their first cycling experiences and was relieved when their daring forerunner was on terra firma again. Once the impending accident was successfully averted, the four of us couldn't help laughing--and I realized that Arabian tourists were far from the pretentious snobs I had long taken them for.
So, as quirky as they may be, the Arabians are definitively a net gain for the region. Not only do they make the cash tills ring, but they also force the country people to broaden their mountain-blocked horizons and acknowledge that there is something beyond the boundaries of Europe. After all, how can we blame Arabian tourists for overrunning our vacation resorts if Austrians themselves make places like Lignano in Italy or Opatija in Croatia seem like Little Vienna? And nobody knows what kind of tourists still lie ahead of the people of Zell am See: Chinese? Mexicans? South Africans? I've heard their climates can be pretty hot, too.
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