PROMOTING COMMUNITY-BASED ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT AT THE NATURAL AREAS IN EGYPT (BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE PLANNING THROUGH EGYPTIAN ECOTOURISM INITIATIVES EVALUATION)

Abstract

During the last decades, tourism was one of the main sources of national income in Egypt (UNWTO, 2013). The Egyptian government is still developing tourism plans and strategies for economic purposes only, such as maximizing profits, not realizing the environment that can be destroyed due to the increasing pressure on natural resources, and ignoring the needs of local communities. As a result, there are many gaps in the tourism planning process in Egypt that influence the effectiveness of their implementation. The involvement of the local community in the development process is one of the main principles, and should their views be taken into account, to ensure the preservation of natural and cultural areas. Consequently, a new model of sustainable tourism has emerged, especially in developing countries who suffered a lot from the negative impacts of mass tourism; This model is called Community based Ecotourism (CBE). The Egyptian government, as more developing countries, tried to change its national tourism strategy through adopting CBE plans in more than one region. However, they often ignore community participation in the planning of the development process, particularly in decisions making, which leads to incomplete the implementation of these plans that rarely meet their needs or interests. This thesis intends to explore a tool for assessing community-based ecotourism (CBE) plans to achieve sustainable tourism development in Egypt, and to ensure the effective participation and cooperation between local communities and tourism stakeholders. This will be fulfilled by analyzing the CBE's successful implementation strategies in various developing countries and using key indicators to assess its success; As well as, evaluating the Egyptian initiatives to plan CBE development, and identifying the main obstacles and issues hindered its implementations.