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OPENING SPEECHES
 Chairman
- Dr. Nino Merola, Director of Italian Development Cooperation Office
Welcome everybody,
I would like to take
this opportunity to welcome you all to this seminar promoting the
activities for community development by the Egyptian and the Italian
authorities. I'd like to stress the presence of many friends that work
with us and that are interested to this subject; I'll mention just few of
them such as the delegations from Menya, from Fayoum and from
Matrouh and many other friends, the tour operators that are working here
in Egypt and some friends who have come specifically from Italy. It is a
sign of interest towards this subject and I think it is a good indicator
of what we can expect for the future:
… I mean to work
together towards the common objective of developing areas in which there
is a great potential, areas which need to receive such development that
tourism and many others activities can bring to them.
We strongly believe that
today will be a good starting point for our activities connected with this
subject; there are already some plans to follow up to this meeting.
It is a great effort
that we all put together and the Ministry of Tourism really thinks that it
will bring some concrete results to Egypt.
(see
the intervention)
Dr.
Moustafa Fouda, Director Nature
Conservation Sector NCS, EEAA
 Good
morning everybody,
On behalf of H.E. the
Minister of Environment and the Executive Chief Officer of the Egyptian
Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), I welcome you in such a nice place
and wish you a fruitful workshop. It is nice to be among friends simply
because when I look at any face here I remember something, some good
initiatives started some years ago and completed with success. Thanks to
the Italians who helped us in the restoration of the programs, I'm sure we
will have enough time to discuss many important issues. Everywhere you go,
in Egypt, there is always something to tell, underneath the sand, in the
water, upon the mountains. So, Egypt is blessed with many interesting
landscapes and different environment.
Our role is to preserve
this environment and at the same time try to balance between environment
and development. In ecotourism specifically, and in tourism in general, we
have been working together over the last five years and we achieved a lot.
However, it is still beyond our own resources. That is why projects like
this one are so important. In particular, the relationships between Egypt
and Italy from the past until now; nowadays we need to put our hands
together to allow – or at least give opportunity – for our children to
enjoy the treasures of Egypt making good use of them. This is why
sustainable tourism is an imperative. (See
intervention)
Dr.
Ahmad Marey, representing the Ministry of
Tourism
Good morning,
I am very happy of being
here on behalf of H.E. the Minister of Tourism.
 Looking at last year
2004, tourism contributed over 6 billion dollars to Egyptian economy. Over
8 million visitors spent these 6 billion dollars that we welcomed here in
Egypt throughout the year. 8 million visitors represent an increase of 35%
versus 2003. Those 8 million visitors spent a total of 81 million nights
in Egypt, and that again represents an increase of 56% versus the year
before. Comparing these figures to international standards, we'll see that
the WTO average growth rate is 4%, while growth rate of our region has
been 10%. Now, we also have ambitious plans for the next years.
We are planning for the
coming 10 years to increase the number of visitors to 18 million and to
increase tourism contribution to GDP to over 12 billion dollars. The 2004
has also been a big milestone for us because it has been the first time in
our history that we welcomed over 1 million visitors from a single
country, and those people came from Italy. In light of those results and
in light of those ambitious plans about the future, nothing will be
possible without a very sound and solid ecotourism policy.
I think projects like
Fayoum exemplifies this, because they are really good models for
ecotourism. So I'm sure that we will continue to achieve results like the
ones achieved last year.
INTERVENTIONS
Chairman - Dr. Nino Merola
My presentation will be
just an overview of the work we are doing in different parts of Egypt.
The title "The Other
Egypt" has been stolen from another project: we would like to stress the
meaning to emphasize the issue of Community Development. Our concept is
opening all the possibilities to fully utilize the communities'
development's potentialities: the development of a site and of its
population. So we have to look at all the different activities which might
bring development to such communities. We will talk about development in
the broader sense. We focus on tourism, of course, but tourism is not the
only activity that can bring such development; we believe in the artistic
potentials, in the qualities and in the history of this country.
We believe in its
environment, which is amazing and already very well known for its
peculiarities. We believe in the cultural heritage of the country, too. It
is not up to me to stress the importance, the quality and the quantity of
the cultural heritage available in Egypt. To reach this goal, I can tell
you that Italian Government is working in many, many areas, from Wadi al-Rayan
to Siwa and to the most southern national parks like the area of Gabal
Elba south to Marsa Alam. We are also active on the sea environment, in
particular in Samadai. I would like to say just a few words for each
place. Wadi al-Rayan potential is well known and we are particularly
proud to recognize that, with our support and direct involvement, Wadi
Hetaan site has been recently awarded as World Heritage Site. The
importance and the projects for the short future about Siwa are well-known
as well; we are supporting the protected areas, we are supporting
architectural environment, we are working on the handicraft production; we
are also keen to make an effort in promoting the typical agricultural
products of Siwa like the dates, the olives and other things and we are
trying to develop a management plan for all the Siwa area.
In the southern part of
Egypt we strongly believe there is a great potential; maybe it will be the
next frontier, and for sure this initial work will bring attention to the
area and will create the basic conditions to get there. I will say a few
words in particular about Samadai. Samadai is probably known to the most
of you. It is a reef where dolphin population rests during the day. Their
presence on that reef is almost daily and it is very high. It has been
visited continuously – it is one of the main attractive sites in the south
and it is also quite an important source of income for the governorate and
so on.
So, we are now working,
of course together with our partner of the EEAA, on a scientific approach.
This is very important: I would like to stress that there is a strong
commitment of scientists in Europe and in Italy in creating a management
system for the area sustainable for the tourists and for the utilization
of the site by the tourist point of view. In Ras Mohammed, the work to do
is mainly due to our Ministry of Environment and Territory; the main
result should be a submarine tunnel that should allow people to have a
look at the beauty of the Red Sea, even if they aren't divers.
Again, we are working in
promoting and protecting the cultural heritage, as I mentioned about Siwa,
in other famous sites like Saqqara, our main objective there, is to have a
sustainable management plan, and Madinet Madi in Fayoum. We aim to have
Madinet Madi ready to be visited by tourists who want to go there.
We support handicraft
productions and marketing in many areas of "the Other Egypt". We already
started some pilot activities in typical food products that can have a
good market both in Egypt and abroad; for example, we are imagining to
characterize Siwa dates with a brand of origin, in order to mark the
difference between traditional products and the others you can easily find
in the markets, because the origin itself is a meaning of quality.
 We
also support the literature in safeguarding expressions, proverbs and oral
traditions, in performing arts, jointly with the enhancement of the role
of women in preserving and developing Egyptian cultural heritage.
Cairo itself is one of
the places we are supporting and promoting. We hosted the seminar here at
the Italian-Egyptian Centre for Restoration Dervish - Mevlevi, to give you
a practical example of what is the potential of this site, which is
completely unknown and unutilized.
In Alexandria too there
are many activities such as the department of old manuscript in the
Library of Alexandria which is of great interest for specialists, and
visitors interested in knowing about this kind of issue.
Our challenge is
promoting the "Other Egypt" for the benefit of the local communities and
of the whole country.
(see the
Conclusions)
Mr.
Mahmoud El-Kaissouni
- Chairman of the Ecotourism Commission, Egyptian Federation for
Tourism
Good
morning,
I represent
today the Egyptian Federation for Tourism.
The most of
us, even Egyptians, know nothing about "Other Egypt". We don't know nearly
90% of it. In brief, ecotourism in Egypt started actually by the mid 1980s
and it started with the deep desert tours. We are nearly 1 million square
km, and here we have 24 announced protected areas, that we think are going
to be the base for a lot of activities in the future years. Until the year
2017 we are going to have 40 protected areas; some of them are equipped
now for visitors, especially for tourist activities, like Fayoum. In
Fayoum we have 2 protected areas: one of them, Wadi al-Rayan, is ready
for tourist activities thank to the Italian Government. The other one is
in the northern part of Fayoum Lake. Italian Government is working in Siwa
too.
Egypt is
blessed, and we always say there is some kind of opened door between Egypt
and God: if ever a door closes, several others open. So, ecotourism is
opening a lot of doors in Egypt. Ecotourism, in fact, is included in about
1,5 million tourists' programme. We are having a lot of new unknown
discoveries; one of the major, announced at the beginning of this year in
France, is a meteorites' field. This field is in the Northeast site of
al-Gulf al-Kabir and is considered the biggest in the world, with its 4500
square km size. During this month we have a scientific delegation coming
from NASA planning to visit this location after testing some of the robots
they are preparing for Mars in Baharayya oasis.
So, as I
said, there are a lot of doors being opened.
Each part
of Egypt, if we talk about ecotourism, is very rich. We are having a lot
of discoveries and, thanks to the Italian Government; we are having a lot
of help to prepare these sites for new activities.
Dr.
Moustafa Fouda, Director Nature
Conservation Sector NCS, EEAA
Everybody
knows the long history of Egypt and tourism has always been based on it. I
think we don't need to discuss that. But today Egypt offers another kind
of destination for tourism; I think that the Red Sea is an example. Its
potential could vary from something like diving and enjoying the nature,
especially the coral reefs, to, for example, fisheries. And the coral
reefs in the future will have a potential for medicine. So what I mean to
say is that the same resource can be used over the time, and if you
preserve them properly, you can make use of them.
We offer
many sites in Egypt: adventures from the Gabal Mousa to places where you
can relax and enjoy the nature. So I'm glad to see here tour operators and
people who would like to do something aimed at preserving the environment.
So, to give other examples, there are the desert safaris, which are quite
common features now in the western desert: they're as well as difficult,
because you have to pay attention in dealing with such a fragile ecosystem
– for example, we used to say to people who would like to hunt "hunt with
a camera, not with a gun".
The problem
is that sometimes we have resources but we don't care about them: we can
offer a lot, but it is very, very important that we should have a plan and
everyone must have a role in it. I always use the word "a cake": we have
to share this cake together.
There is an
unbelievable variety of landscapes here in Egypt: the desert, the
mountains, important geological features available in many different
sites, and some of them can be accessed within just one hour and half from
Cairo, for example Wadi El Rayan. There our job is to manage this
heritage site in the most proper way, according to the international
standards, and we have succeeded in doing it.
We also
have a lot of culture, starting from the pre-historic period. It can give
us a lot of important information about environment in the past – how it
was, which animals there were and so on. You can have benefits from the
culture, if you use it properly, especially thinking about sustainable
tourism. For example, there was a woman living in the desert and producing
very simple, traditional things; we decided to have a fashion show, with
people coming here from Italy and enjoying a fantastic event near the
Pyramids and also in Sharm el-Sheikh. There were a lot of those products
available there, so they had the opportunity to see and buy them.
Actually, this experience should be documented properly to show how can
handicrafts end up in a good resource for many people – I mean, not only
tourists but also local communities because, after all, we are keen about
local communities development.
We would
like to implement the millennium development goals to take care of those
people too, we improve their life standards and livelihood, and at the
same time we take care of them in terms of education, health and many
other things. But, above all, we care of the environment, because you
cannot just go and do whatever you want, you must have a strategy, you
must have an action plan. We need to establish equilibrium between tourism
development and natural resources. The strategy is available, and I will
be very happy to send it to everyone is interested in it.
As was said
before, we have 24 protected areas and we're planning to increase them to
40. We succeeded in getting a presidential decree in a way that nobody can
touch these areas that we are going to declare protected – we cannot
declare all of them at once, we don't have enough resources for that. But
now we have a council in Egypt that is looking at land use in Egypt. For
example I can speak about Wadi al-Gemal. It is the last protected area and
a very good work is being done now for ecotourism: we established roads
and signs so that you can go and enjoy nature. We encourage stakeholders,
especially young graduates from AUC (American University in Cairo) to go
there and spend one or more months, having a camp site and they developed
a camel track and are now developing rooms and roads in the area so that
everyone can take benefits from these sites.
Another
interesting example is Elba: there are mountains go down to more than 2000
meters, even into the deep waters. Between these extremes there is the
missed oasis, the only place in Egypt with dense acacia forest and many
rare species of animals.
We also
have visitor centres in different places and we are proud of some of them.
We have ecology in south Sinai. We offer shows, we offer a lot of
activities like bird watching. We have a lot of publications in different
forms (CDs, books, leaflets).
Some things
already exist, but what we still need support to save these resources, and
also from agencies and tour operators. Let us work together because if we
don't do it, the next generations will damn us.
So, please,
work together in a way that everyone can enjoy the treasures of Egypt.
Dr. Fouda about Samadai
Two years
ago people realized there is a site called "Dolphin House" where you can
go and watch baby dolphins with their parents. Once the word spread over,
the place became quite famous. Then I went to the site and saw there were
a lot of people visiting it. So I said the stakeholders: "Let's work
together".
My job was
simple, I provided some regulations in terms of the number of boats and
visitors, and it was good for you. So, when I went there again after one
year I saw to my surprise that, instead of the 10 boats we agreed, there
were 37. So, instead of having 100 people, there were some 700 or 800
visitors, and that was not acceptable. I stopped it and I convinced the
Governor of the Red Sea to stop this until we provide a site management
plan. So, as I got the request from the Italian Consulate to bring there
some tourists, I said let's work together to allow it. So, we found an
Italian expert and we worked together to prepare a site management plan,
which we discussed among the different stakeholders and we made it very
clear: there is a site for snorkelling, a site for diving, a time limit, a
number limit. And we said that nobody was going to go over there without
paying the cost for all of this. And it worked. We also agreed that it was
going to be an experimental approach. You need to have scientific bases to
monitor what is going on. We formed an NGO and then we were able to get
some resources from the Debt Swap, in a way that could ensure the
sustainability of this resource.
So, when we
started there were about 150 dolphins; when we stopped it there were
something like 20 dolphins; now, anytime you go, you are sure that there
are dolphins – once I was amazed we were able to spot some 4000 dolphins
around the site.
Chairman – Dr. Nino Merola
Thank you.
What I'd like to emphasize is that I think that the Egyptian Government,
particularly the EEAA,
is ready to support the flow of tourists in many, many areas by providing
brochures and pamphlets, by doing research work and by organizing
visitors' centers – some of them are ready and some others will be ready
soon.
So, I think it's time
for people interested also to rely on the Egyptian Agency for Tourism,
making your requests available. I'm quite sure they will be more than glad
to receive inputs from you, from the partners, and to accord to the
resources that are available, maybe trying to provide a specific answer to
your needs if those will be facilitating your job and providing
development to the area.
Dr.
Hussein El Zomor, Vice Secretary General
Fayoum Governorate
Good
morning. I'm here on behalf of H.E. the Governor of Fayoum. It has
delegated Dr. Mohsen Bayad, the professor of engineering and the advisor
to the Governor for Tourist Affairs, to make a brief presentation about
Wadi al-Rayan Protectorate and the vision and proposals of the
Governorate.
Dr.
Mohsen Bayad, professor of engineering and
Advisor to the Governor for Tourist's Affairs
First of
all, I have an intervention in the issue of environment regarding the
presentation of Dr. Fouda. I think there is a huge gap between what people
says about environment and what really happens – and this gap is growing.
Of course, there is adequate media, but still this media cannot reach the
ordinary men, whose education can be so simple.
Dr.
Marco Marchetti, Environmental Project
Coordinator, Italian Cooperation
Just to complete what
Dr. Fouda said, the protected areas are facing a challenge because it is
very costly to operate and maintain a protected area, and the budget of
the Government is very small. So here is the challenge for the future and
the role of interrelation between ecotourism in the protected areas. These
areas should be able, in the near future, to deal with the tour operators
directly. Of course, on the sides of the protected areas, there should be
infrastructure facilities to bring to the people the basic thing that
should be there; otherwise, no real development of tourism could be
ensured. In this sense, the Italian Government is supporting the Ministry
of Environment. We are not supporting just for tourism, but also to
develop the capacity and the possibility to interact with local
communities.
But to manage a
protected area requires a management plan; to prepare a management plan
means to interact with all the partners, including the people living in
this area. So it's a long job, and we are proud to say that we have done
in Wadi El Rayan the first step for Egypt. In the near future we hope
there will be an autonomous body that will be able to interact with
tourism companies as they are doing in South Africa, because the way is
still long and I think we have just started.
Dr.
Maria Casini, Archeological Expert-Italian
Cultural Institute
 We will have a look at
the Italian commitment on archaeology.
We have more than 17
expeditions working in many places located throughout the country. In many
of these sites work is carried out very fast and some of them are ready to
be visited and included as new tourist destinations, because one of the
aims of archaeologists is to make the site available to the public to make
it part of the historical mosaic. This is why the duty of the
archaeologists is also to work in the conservation and restoration of the
remains.
Now we have the
archaeological exhibitions from Alexandria to Luxor. In the western desert,
the road between Siwa and Bahareya could be included in a trip, as well as
the site of Bahrein, where we found a Ptolemaic tomb. In Fayoum we have 4
exhibitions. In Menya, in Middle Egypt, you can visit Antinopolis and
Sheikh Ebada, a village established by the roman emperor Adriano in 1300
b.C. in honour of his friend Antino. On the Red Sea you can visit Wadi
Gawasis, a very important site. All those sites, of course, are available
to be visited, but we need first of all the permission of the Supreme
Council for Antiquities and also the organization included in the tourist
visit.
Dr.
Antonio La Rocca, Archeological Project
Coordinator-Italian Cooperation
I'm Antonio
La Rocca, Italian co-manager of the 2nd phase of the project
supporting the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities in the
environmental monitoring and management of cultural heritage sites. As I
said, we are now working at the second phase of this project. I will tell
you a few words about the activities done during the first phase and what
we are planning to do now.
Until 20
years ago we opened to the public about 25 tombs in Saqqara; now only 8 to
10 are opened because of the decay of paintings. In the first phase of our
programme, these tombs have been checked and it was found that their
conditions were so critical that they should be kept closed. That is why
they are not able to bear the pressure of the present day flows of
tourists.
During the
second phase we will work in the areas of Saqqara and Fayoum where our aim
is to design the visibility studies for managing archaeological sites with
respecting environment-monitoring management.
We are
strongly committed also in Fayoum and Saqqara.
In Saqqara
we are designing a new tourist path network, which allows the decision
maker of the site to manage the turn over of the tourist in order to
reduce the pressure over the monument, especially the tombs.
In this way
news transports suitable for archaeological sites will be proposed such as
electric minibus.
This
visibility study will include a very ambitious plan to propose new tourist
path that links the Giza Plateau to Dahshour pyramids, trough the
archaeological sites of the Abu Ghrab, Abu Seir and Saqqara.
So, these
will be probably a very important link starting from Giza, will allow us
to reach the south of Saqqara site.
This plan's
realization will require years, but within our project we are planning to
do the best for a pilot tourist part in Saqqara.
We also are
working to allow the tourist to visit several archaeological sites.
In Fayoum
there is a pilot project aimed to realise a new tourist path which will
link Wadi el Rayan protected area with the Visitor Centre, the spring
area and the archaeological sites of Medinet Madi where we are planning to
build a Visitor Centre and the necessary tourist facilities to allow the
tourist to visit and also to have a look at the local products.
I would
underline that this would be probably the first time in Egypt that an
archaeological site is linked to an important naturalistic area like Wadi
el Rayan, thus realizing an integrated cultural pole in Fayoum. Thank
you.
Dr.
Vincenzo Valenti, Project Coordinator
Thank you, first of all
I wish to express that my feeling today after at least three hours of
speeches and considerations is that we are really on the right way. On the
way to win this challenge, because creating new tourist routes and sites
for the community development is really a big challenge. I consider that
the most important thing to have the right approach is to diversify what
Egypt offers at the moment to the international market, and to propose new
tourist destinations and locations.
The challenge is to have
new products to offer new destinations and new area sites to offer.
The challenge is that if
we have some potential we need to transform them in opportunities. This is
the first step.
The second step goes
from opportunities to development.
The third step goes from
development in the international market.
So, we need to work hard
in this way, because Egypt has a lot of historical, environmental and
cultural potentials. Today we need them to transform in local development.
Now I would like to talk
about our project.
We have this cooperation
between the Italian and Egyptian Government to create and promote new
tourist districts. The title "The Other Egypt" is in a sense our approach
to diversify new destinations such as Mediterranean Coast, South Sinai and
Red Sea, the desert oasis.
The challenge is to
organize these areas as tourist districts. In order to promote new tourist
segments, it will be necessary, in addition to the traditional offers made
by Egypt, to include a larger number of different locations, sites and
areas that have not been yet considered by international tourism. So I
think that we need to discover the "Other Egypt" and to organize the Other
Egypt as a new tourist district.
This is our project. We
are also working in cooperation with the TDA (Tourism Development
Authority). The project's title is "Tourism Development in Egypt:
Promotion and Implementation of New Territorial Tourist Districts". It
means that tourism development don't have to be concentrated in only one
area. It must be distributed into the local development because local
community development is a challenge, because most of the tourist
experience was concentrated in some areas, some groups and some companies.
But we need tourism to extend this benefit to local development.
I think the challenge is
to create development around the tourism and to create tourism districts.
And what tourism needs? Because we have potentials but we don't have
tourism development. So we need to have a good hospitality in the area to
offer to the international market. We need to have roads, infrastructures
and facilities. We need to have services at an international standard
level. We need to have management because without professional management
the tourist offer is out of the market. We need to have transportation,
safety and security in all the area. It means that we need investments,
finance, know-how, best practices, pilot projects and we need to involve
the real partners. And the real partners are the tour operators, the
agencies and the companies involved in this sector and in the sectors
around it, such as commerce, handicrafts, agriculture, and transportation.
If we understand that all these sectors around will really create new
employment, new small companies, and this will create jobs and income also
for the local people.
One of the things we
need to create in the local areas is a tourist services centre, where all
these activities are concentrated to attract people to this market and to
let the foreign market know what Egypt is now proposing. Thank you.
Ms.
Maria Donata Rinaldi, COSPE
Representative in Egypt
My name is
Maria Donata Rinaldi and I represent COSPE, which is an Italian Ngo,
present in several countries and in Egypt since1998, promoting local
development, community development and cultural heritage through the
preservation of traditional handicrafts, ecotourism and responsible
tourism.
The main
topic of our presentation is local knowledge for a global world,
which means how can we support and promote and take advantage of the local
knowledge, the local communities for a sustainable development in Egypt
for a global world, which means also how to attract and link producers,
people and local communities to the national market and the international
world.
We try to
do this with different projects throughout the country, trying to match
cultural heritage, traditional handicrafts, organic food, responsible
tourism and fair trade. For example, we are now working in Siwa in a new
project funded by the Italian Cooperation together with another Italian
Ngo, Ricerca e Cooperazione, which aims to promote sustainable development
through ecotourism, training, through renovating traditional buildings of
Siwa, and we promote economical revitalization and new tourist places
through a participatory approach of the communities; another example,
we’re now working in Siwa in schools, with children and teachers of the
primary school, to promote awareness about environment, about their
culture, their architectural heritage and also to take children out of the
schools in order to let them get in touch with the artistic heritage of
their region. We’re organising field's visits for the students of Siwa to
promote their own environment.
Together
with our Egyptian partners, we are working to promote traditional
handicraft all over the country – COSPE is now working in 16 governorates,
so we have quite a large geographical coverage of the country. Our aim is
also to give economic value to local handicrafts, also improving the
quality (with training, technical assistance) because we think that it is
a way to promote marketing and promoting marketing, especially on the
international networks, is a way to give sustainability to the work of
this people and, of course, to promote local and economic development. So
we support the production, we try to improve working conditions of this
people, which sometimes is very poor and so need improvement, and, on
international level, we promote the concept and practice of fair trade.
Promoting
bio-food production is another big potential we are trying to develop: we
know that Egyptian agriculture is very rich, but there is still space to
promote organic food production, which have a great economical value,
especially on the international market.
About fair
trade, an alternative concept of trade based on fair relations, fair
prices, transparent relation between producer and consumer. What we do for
fair trade in Egypt is not only marketing, but also to spread the concept
and knowledge in Egypt. So, fair trade means improving the wages of the
producers, the employment opportunities, the working conditions, and
improving long-term trade relations, gender equality, and giving to the
local communities more power on the market. What we experience everyday is
that local handicrafts is suffering for globalisation, sometimes local
handicrafts is no more considered as an economic potential, so supporting
it is giving more opportunities to sustainable development and local
development (opening new local markets for tourism and development).
Recently we
experienced sustainable tourism, which is not exactly ecotourism and not
only it: we are already organizing small tours with groups (max. 10
people) and we associate traditional tourism to visits to local
communities or visits to our development projects or local handicrafts
producers.
Now what we
want to promote is tourism with an human face: we use an integrate
approach, to obtain sustainable development through community development,
and all this can be linked with responsible tourism, because when people
go back to their countries they can tell something else than showing
pictures of the pyramids. Thank you.
Ms.
Zohra Merabet,
Executive Director,
NSCE (North South Consultants Exchange)
 All the interventions
have been stressing the opportunities that Egypt has for other kind of
tourism, but I think we also have another challenge, which is to bring the
marginal Egyptian people on board to really have success. I’m going to
present the project we’re implementing in Fayoum.
Fayoum is an hour and
half away from Cairo and now the infrastructures are excellent, so there
are good roads, which make it very easy to go there. Fayoum has geology,
palaeontology, it is on the main migration route of birds from Europe to
Africa and there is the oldest paved road in the world (20 km.) in the
desert, there is also the popular art and the traditional agriculture.
Our main project is, of
course, to support sustainable development in Fayoum and to reduce poverty
in the region through local economic activity. The second important
objective is transforming the environmental and cultural assets of Fayoum
into economic asset managed by the people.
We have to face some
problems. The first one is the limited capacity of the existing human
resources to serve and to work with ecotourism. The second one is the
marginal economic benefit that people at the moment get from tourism
activity in Egypt. Then there is the deterioration of fragile environment
and the limited enforcement of existing preservation and conservation laws
on the environment.
Our strategy is a
combination, because we have to deal with the people, the system and the
organization, which are not fit to support ecotourism. So our approach has
been at the same time to improve the capacity of local people and local
government through skills development and business training for
ecotourism, and then we have to integrate ecotourism with the activities
of the protected area in Fayoum and also we give support to the creation
of small businesses (by promoting local exhibitions, supporting services
and linking them with emerging market). Our strategy has been to work with
the different stakeholders in Fayoum and, more important, with the
Governorate, to develop the strategy, to be able to offer all these things
to operators.
About 30 international
tour operators have shown strong interest. We came up to one conclusion:
the demand is very important but there are other challenges dealing with
side management, security management (key subject), and services.
We saw a very high
motivation from the people in Fayoum to get in touch with tourism; people
have been very fast learning, for example to become tourist guides, or in
language speaking; we had very interesting personal investments from local
people. There has been some improvement in the security of the
Governorate.
Now, what we need as a
future action from the Government is to allocate resources and authority
for management of sensitive sites, and for important archaeological sites
in Fayoum. It is also very important to guarantee better security to the
visitors and to create links between the different parts of the
Government, the private sector and people, in a way that they can talk
together and find the ways to resolve problems.
Mr.
Umberto Di Maria, Deputy Chairman
AITR (Italian Association for Responsible Tourism)
I think the key aspect
of this morning debate is the question: what kind of other tourism
can be possible without the collaboration of the local communities?
An Italian research
concerning travellers shows that 45% of the interviewed want to keep in
contact with local population; the 20% want to know and respect the local
heritage; the 80% want to know where their money goes; the 14% want to
feel useful for the country they visit; the 3% want to travel in little
groups.
 AITR was born to support
and find the best way to organize sustainable tourism; after long
discussions we came up with an ethical chart for responsible travel which
is very important because it links the name of local communities with
tourism. It’s the discovery that the local communities exist. The
most important thing is that before the travel starts it has to be
prepared: the tour operators must propose some training before the
journey.
Secondly, the tour
operators must build up a journey in collaboration with local communities,
not negotiating the price but accepting the price the local community
wants to be paid.
Thirdly, at the end of
the trip, the travel experience has to be shared with other tourists.
We also have a policy,
an objective that we want to reach. First is to be active
participants of international discussion about tourism (next year we will
became a body of the new ethical committee of the World Tourism
Organization). Second, we want to
achieve some changes in the Italian behaviour towards tourism. Third, we want to start
talking with the industry of tourism and build up with them a new policy
for sustainable and responsible tourism.
Fourth, we want to
involve in the maximum way the local communities interested into be a
destination of tourism.
Fifth, we want to
support the already existing and working NGOs in Egypt in finding a way to
make this new ways to organize tourism.
To be concrete, four of
our associations are already working in Egypt (between them CTA Viaggi
Solidali, CISS and COSPE): they are professional, so they are technically
authorized to produce journeys.
There is no theory,
there are no models, but there is something in our experience that we can
share.
How will be possible to
organize sustainable tourism? There are different ways, and each of our
associations carry out this task in different ways, but we know that all
the proposals share the same ideas, specifically:
-
be
prepared before leaving
-
be
transparent and provide a fair division of the profits
-
respect
cultural and religious aspects
-
no
merchandised culture and religion
-
direct
relation between tourists and local people (for example, through local,
trained guides)
-
sustainable use of tourism
-
fair
salaries for the ones working in the field
CONCLUSIONS
Chairman – Dr. Nino Merola
What
I understood here is that we are no more into the theory but we are
finally entering into the practical field. Everybody here said they’re
ready to start working.
Promotion, collaboration
and cooperation between all the actors involved in this sector are a must.
Secondly, it has been
stressed the importance of the local authorities: there is a clear vision
of how to involve the communities, how to make the benefits of tourism
really impact on the local areas, so local authorities must become
everyday more active and play their role by confronting themselves not
only with the central authority, but participating into the discussion,
the managing and the planning. One of the propositions that can come from
this meeting could be to create a task group made up of the major actors
involved (government, local authorities, tour operators and so on) in
order to discuss jointly what to do and how to take advantage of this
great effort that is ready to start.
According to this it
will be very welcome the preparation of master plans about the
potentiality of new sites, about promotion and whatever.
Thirdly, there is no
need now just to make lists of potentiality, areas of interest and so one,
there is the need of preparing packages of offers, what can be offered in
each area, every Governorate should probably elaborate its own offer in
order to be ready to present it to the market through the multiple
channels you’ve seen today are available (tour operators, Italian
Cooperation and so on).
Fourthly, the different
actors should define together how to manage things; we won’t neglect the
importance of having the local communities fully involved. We understood a
positive message: we don’t have to think about great numbers, as in Sharm
el-Sheikh, but we know there are plenty of people looking for different
things.
I hope these reflections
will be useful for our future work. |
