TY - JOUR
T1 - How Eco is Eco-Tourism?
T2 - A Systematic Assessment of Resorts on the Red Sea, Egypt
AU - Gohar, Amir
AU - Mathias Kondolf, G.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge the support of research expenses from the Beatrix Farrand Endowment of the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Al-Falah Program of the Center for Middle East Studies, both of the University of California, Berkeley. The senior author was supported in his doctoral studies by a University Fellowship awarded by the Graduate Division of the University of California Berkeley. We express our gratitude to the staff of all 37 resorts we analyzed, who answered our questions about practices and provided data as needed. Their openness and cooperation made this analysis possible. Throughout our analysis of environmental issues related to tourism development along the Egyptian Red Sea coast we have benefited from insightful discussions with Hossam Helmy of HEPCA and the Shagra Eco-Lodge.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Eco-tourism is a growing part of the tourism industry. However, there are no agreed-upon criteria of what constitutes eco-tourism, so the industry is currently self-identified, with eco-lodges simply declaring themselves so. Here we present the first systematic comparison of eco-tourism versus conventional (or mass) tourism, using as our study area a set of 37 resorts along the southern Red Sea coast of Egypt, all constructed on similarly oriented parcels between the sea and the Red Sea Mountain Range. We compared resorts based on their water, energy, and waste management (all virtually equivalent), and based on mappable environmental parameters such as swimming pool surface area, distance from mangrove patches, conflict with flood plains, extent of lawn area, and means of access to deep water. We found that the self-identified eco-tourism establishments were not significantly different from the conventional tourism resorts in terms of their stress on environmental resources. We recommend that future eco-tourism operations be modified in two key ways. First, on the planning level, by modifying the regional master plan created by the central government tourism authorities. Second, on the site design level, by introducing significant improvements to the design approval processes for the developments to ensure compliance with environmental requirements.
AB - Eco-tourism is a growing part of the tourism industry. However, there are no agreed-upon criteria of what constitutes eco-tourism, so the industry is currently self-identified, with eco-lodges simply declaring themselves so. Here we present the first systematic comparison of eco-tourism versus conventional (or mass) tourism, using as our study area a set of 37 resorts along the southern Red Sea coast of Egypt, all constructed on similarly oriented parcels between the sea and the Red Sea Mountain Range. We compared resorts based on their water, energy, and waste management (all virtually equivalent), and based on mappable environmental parameters such as swimming pool surface area, distance from mangrove patches, conflict with flood plains, extent of lawn area, and means of access to deep water. We found that the self-identified eco-tourism establishments were not significantly different from the conventional tourism resorts in terms of their stress on environmental resources. We recommend that future eco-tourism operations be modified in two key ways. First, on the planning level, by modifying the regional master plan created by the central government tourism authorities. Second, on the site design level, by introducing significant improvements to the design approval processes for the developments to ensure compliance with environmental requirements.
KW - Eco-tourism
KW - Egypt
KW - Mass tourism
KW - Red Sea
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098950317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su122310139
DO - 10.3390/su122310139
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098950317
VL - 12
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
SN - 2071-1050
IS - 23
M1 - 10139
ER -