There’s a joke about Lieutenant Rzhevsky, who asked the hussars for advice on how to attract a lady. They suggested he first pay attention to the lady or her accessory, then talk about the weather, followed by music. Only after that should he gently transition to the topic of a date. After this, Rzhevsky encountered Natasha Rostova on a walk with her dog, approached her, kicked the dog, and commented, “Looks like it’s going to rain.” Then he declared, “I have a drum, let’s go have some fun!”
Somewhat similarly, the touts work along the promenades of Luxor and Aswan. They are very eager to take you for a ride on their felucca (a boat with a triangular sail) across the cool waters of the Nile. If you sit on the promenade enjoying the view of the Nile, you will inevitably experience 3-4 quite friendly encounters that consist of phrases like “hello,” “how are you,” “which country are you from,” “a complimentary comment about your country,” and “I have a felucca—there it is, would you like to take a ride?”
If you say you came from “Nagonia,” people respond with, “Wow, my cousin just married a girl from Nagonia!” So, what’s happening here? These guys have mastered the skill of making contact, but their fiery temperament doesn’t allow for long detours around the topic they’re interested in, and they get straight to the point about the drum and…
This is already progress, as the poorer and therefore more naive drivers simply shout “Keles?!” (Keles, the name of a traditional one-horse four-wheeled tent cart from Upper Egypt). By the way, in response to “no,” both groups naively assume that bargaining is appropriate and ask, “You know how much?” with an intonation that suggests the price should be surprising.
The most interesting thing is that a ride on a kalesh across the city costs up to 5 pounds (dollars), while a felucca costs 25 pounds (5 dollars) per hour. So, it’s not a significant amount for a tourist. In theory, tourists should be willing to accept this service, even if they have already used it. So why do tourists all say “no” in unison and wave off the touts like they’re annoying flies? At the same time, tourists readily spend money on freshly squeezed juice, which is also a “sight” of Upper Egypt and costs 1-2 pounds per glass, depending on the type of juice and the seller’s greed.
To understand the reason behind the mass “ignoring,” it’s important to know that if you show any interest in a service provider, for example, by inquiring about the price, you will be met with a discouraging response. After a long process of thinking and questions that drag out the time needed to formulate an answer (do you want it in pounds or dollars, by the hour or by the day), you’ll be quoted a price that is exactly ten times their own rate and five times what would be reasonable for a European. However, if you ignore the sales pitches, you might hear a continuously decreasing price offered, eventually dropping to an unreasonably low amount that is also off-putting. It turns out that the salespeople themselves motivate clients to ignore them. So why do they keep trying to attract attention? To avoid regret. After all, if you stay silent, you definitely won’t get anything, but if you draw attention to yourself, you might just get lucky.
But the most important thing about the systematic ignoring of touts is that they don’t even try to uncover the needs of their clients. Instead, they jump from the “introduction” phase to the “presentation” phase, skipping over the phases of problem identification, problem development, and guiding towards a solution. For example: I’m sitting with my wife on the waterfront. We’re admiring the Nile, eating cheese straight from the knife, and snacking on olives. What do we want? We want peace. What irritates us? Floating hotels right in front of us, belching solar exhausts into the sky, and clingy touts. What are we planning to do today? Well, stroll back and forth, maybe find a decent restaurant, perhaps wander through the market—basically, find a way to spend about 50 bucks. And how much are we willing to pay right now to get a) peace, b) the absence of boats and touts, c) a beautiful view? Well, based on our budget, 5 dollars is a good price for both of us. Less than a coffee at a café. Especially since for 5 dollars, we could persuade a felucca captain to take us out for 2 hours. What would he prefer—standing on the hot asphalt waiting for luck or taking us out on the cool water? It might take longer, but it’s definitely a better option.
We don’t realize it and automatically tell all the solicitors, “no.” It’s easier that way.
What did the promoters need to do? They just had to ask us why we were sitting on the waterfront, what we liked, what we didn’t, and what we dreamed about. They could even delve deeper and ask why we wanted peace and quiet. (We would then share the story that we had escaped the hustle and bustle of the metropolis and the overwhelmingly touristy Hurghada). Then, without mentioning the felucca, they could point out that they had the opportunity to help us get what we wanted. THAT’S IT!