The Hilltown Hotel, in coordination with the Association of Yemeni Tourism and Travel Agencies (AYTTA), organized a meeting to discuss the condition of the prevailing tourism market in Yemen and to express their condolences over the sad incident that led to the death of some British and Australian tourists.
The AYTTA sent two letters of condolence to the US and UK Embassies in Sanaa. A third letter was sent to the Yemeni government regarding the future of tourism in Yemen, blaming the government of not being capable of eliminating the phenomenon of kidnapping. It also requested the government to take strict and strong measures in this regard. They have also blamed the Ministry of Tourism, accusing it of taking huge sums of money in the name of promoting tourism, and when a problem arises the ministry does not come to their rescue. They have also asked to reduce the charges and exempt them from other duties as the last incident had negative financial effects on these agencies.

Some agencies are not directly effected, whereas others have 30% cancellation. In addition to this, many hotel reservations were canceled.
Many countries have advised their nationals to cancel their trips to Yemen such as Germany who has reduced the number of accredited Yemeni agencies to two (Universal and YATA).

Yemen Times met Mr. Muaeen Ali Al-Iryani, Financial Secretary of AYTTA

Q: What have proposed to the government?
A: We have met with representatives of the government and the Ministry of Interior and the people concerned with security. Our demands were and still are to use capital punishment as deterrent to all would-be kidnappers. Abductions occur everywhere and almost in every city in the world. But in Yemen the problem takes bigger dimensions because in most cases kidnappers are set free and the hand of law doesn't reach them. This is unacceptable in Yemen and outside Yemen and that is why the government appears weak to the outside world.

Q: How do you see the future of tourism in this country?
A: If this problem is handled strictly, this kind of action will not have any effect on tourism in Yemen. But if officials fail in handling it, it will be the end of tourism in Yemen for many years to come.

Q: What is the role of AYTTA in this regard?
A: In the recent problem the association played the role of a middleman in passing on the news as fast as possible, gathering support and warning others of the danger of the situation. This might appear as an unimportant role but that's the best we could do. Our financial capabilities are limited and authorities try to limit our involvement. For them, any action by us means crossing the red line and that is not acceptable by them

By Bassam Al-Saqqaf
Yemen Times.

 

Starting the 1st of January, 1999, Sanaa University has gone on holidays. An official announcement said that the place is closed until the 28th. Nice break. This comes at the heel of a 2-week strike by the university teaching staff in search of better terms. The government had reneged on an agreement with the Union of the Teaching and Administrative Staff of Sanaa/Aden Universities, thus leading to the strike. The teachers went back to teaching only on 18th December.

To start with, the term had started with a 3-week delay. Classes which were supposed to start during September, actually started in the second half of October.
As a result of all of this, professors at Sanaa University will teach less than half the curriculum this term. In fact, some of the teaching staff has yet to set foot in class.
In many colleges, the length of the term has effectively averaged about four weeks.
The physical meeting of classes is not the only symbol of the fall in academic performance. The curricula has also shrunk to levels that are not acceptable at any other university, even inside Yemen. Plagued by neglect, carelessness, lack of accountability and other problems, the quality and quantity of teaching at Sanaa University have fallen way below the minimum academic dose. And there is no solution in sight. The problem is expected to continue to fester.

The main problem is politics. The university has been totally politicized. The political leadership of Yemen is heavily involved in the management of the university. Politics even gets into play in the admission policy of students.
The university has been unable to keep up with academic development abroad. Speaking to the head librarian at the Central Library of the university, he sadly notes that we have been cutting back on our subscription to academic journals and magazines. "From 200 subscriptions, we are today down to roughly a dozen," he laments.
The university has no real computer facilities, although in some colleges they have some units. "We keep these as decorations and to boast that we have computers," one professor at the College of Engineering quipped.

Some university professors have been trying to have access to the internet. The efforts have been futile, so far. "Connectivity is important for our work. We need to keep up, but nobody understands what we are saying," explained a frustrated professor of medicine.
A few years back, each college used to produce a quarterly magazine, mostly of research work done by the professors. Today, the whole university does not produce one magazine a year on a regular basis.
"The university suffers from the stagnation that has hit the whole country," said an old professor.
So much for academic professionalism.