Following my posting on the tourists and residents who get lost on Fujairah streets and the need for some detailed maps, it would be good to have a Fujairah Visitor Centre, where travelers can stop and get all the information they need for their visit.Perhaps a few Visitor Centres might be the ideal, realizing the different approaches to the emirate but starting off with one that is suitably located for the many visitors who from the existing Dubai road and the soon to be completed highway.
The purposes are many—to provide information and maps, through brochures and personal advice and to offer public restrooms where travelers might be relieved and refreshed.
Perhaps architecturally, it could be styled with the lines of a Bedouin tent, with the interior including a majlis (مجلس) or Arabic sitting room, where Emiratis might welcome guests to the exciting emirate of Fujairah.
As new international visitors to the Auckland airport in New Zealand are surprised to be given a free cup of tea or coffee by a team of volunteers, it would express traditional Arab hospitality for visitors to Fujairah to be greeted with some locally grown dates and Arabic coffee.
For the many Emiratis learning English at nearby Colleges, doing time in the Visitor Centre would be a wonderful way to get conversation practice as well as meeting people of other cultures and languages.
Geoff Pound
Image: Contemporary majlis.
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