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going for the green
environmentalists have said for years that big hotels
are damaging the ecology that tourists come to see. now it seems
that business concurs. ecolodges are springing up across the country
as operators seek to cash in on the rising tide of “green”
tourists.
by matthew carrington
mahmoud el-kaissouni doesn’t look like the fighting type.
silver-haired and sharp-eyed. polite. more like a favorite uncle
than a former commando. but as chairman of the ecotourism committee
of the egyptian tourism federation (etf), the veteran of several
wars is fighting his toughest battle. he has the formidable job
of protecting the natural resources on which egypt’s $6 billion
a year tourist industry depends. for him, ecotourism is shrewd strategy.
“look,” he says, leaning forward, “most of the tourists
who are now coming to egypt don’t want marble and crystal –
they want to see mud and brick, and eat traditional food... that
is a marvelous experience.” besides, he adds, “ecotourism
is a noble activity. we don’t try to change habitats and society,
we just go and see. enjoy. buy the products of the local people,
and then leave.”
it is an attitude that has led him into some conflict. last year
he stood up to the ministry of housing when the residential community
of katameya wanted to expand onto the site of an ancient petrified
forest and, as a prolific contributor to the local press, he says
that he is not afraid to take on even his friends in the tourism
industry when their facilities do not make the best use of their
surroundings.
his enthusiasm is hard to deny, but how far along in fact is the
ecotourism business in egypt, and what does the future hold?
first off, it should be noted that ecotourism hasn’t really
hit egypt. while on the whole egyptian tourism facilities –
dive operations to beach hut accommodations up to internationally
affiliated five-star hotel chains – are heading in the direction
of greater sustainability, at least on paper, there is neither the
regulatory context nor perhaps the commitment to all aspects of
practice to be able to say that there is a definable, established
ecotourism sector. yet.
what there are, however, are a number of different variations on
the theme of ecotourism which, while probably best described for
the time being as “nature-based businesses,” are nonetheless
big steps in the right direction, for a number of reasons.
“ecotourism” is not hard to define – you just have
to use fairly ambiguous language. the world conservation union describes
it as “environmentally responsible travel and visitation to
relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy, study and
appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features –
both past and present) that promotes conservation, has low negative
visitor impact and provides for beneficially active socioeconomic
involvement of local populations.”
which is all very fine and good as long as everyone agrees on what
kinds of behavior are “responsible,” what kind of programs
“promote nature” and what constitutes “beneficial
socioeconomic involvement.” problem is that people don’t.
not only is there disagreement in egypt, there are somewhere around
70 different certification programs worldwide, each competing to
become the hallmark by which eco-businesses can advertise themselves
and consumers can make an informed judgment before committing their
dollars.
indications are, however, that the nascent industry has some way
to go before it meets an absolute set of criteria.
ihab shaalan, an environmental consultant who has worked with usaid
on sustainable tourism on the red sea coast and now runs his own
firm called eco-business, told business monthly that “ecotourism
in egypt remains undefined. until we develop egyptian definitions
of an ecolodge, we cannot judge if it is really an ecolodge... [but]
ecolodges in egypt remain far behind lodges in other countries.”
it is also clear, however, that there is a trend emerging in the
tourism business. driven both by a significant sector of the european
market that is demanding a higher level of environmental and social
accountability from operators, and large injections of eu and american
aid money into sinai, egyptian regulators and operators are slowly
becoming eco-friendly.
less for more, and more for less
the key to the growth of eco-business is of course demand. there
is a growing awareness of sustainability issues among the consumers
of tourism, and a demand for facilities that meet environmental
criteria. leaving aside this “pull” for a moment, however,
there are two “push” factors driving the adoption of ecotourism
principles within the egyptian tourist industry.
the first is that, with rapid expansion into the environmentally
sensitive areas of sinai and the red sea coast over the past 25
years, it has become clear that in order to protect the massive
investment in infrastructure, measures have to be taken to preserve
the area’s ecology. “what some of the big developers have
done here is sheer suicide: they are coming close to destroying
all our businesses with their thoughtless, short-sighted approach
to development,” a sharm-based tour operator said, speaking
on the condition of anonymity. “something has to change. we
have to protect what we have or nobody is going to want to visit
the area.”
the most common example cited of how not to do development is hurghada,
with operators, consultants and even tourists themselves pointing
to the lack of planning control and resultant damage to the reef
and attendant ecology. yet observers have long noted the damage
caused by improper moorage and diving practices, not to mention
badly executed waste water (from sewage to desalination plant discharge)
and garbage disposal all the way up and down the red sea coast.
for this reason, there has been a heavy focus on the sustainability
of tourist development in sensitive areas in the last five to 10
years. the egyptian environmental affairs agency (eeaa), the government’s
environmental watchdog, is receiving substantial amounts of training
and help from outside agencies and, in contrast with the situation
a few years ago, no development can proceed without a complete environmental
impact assessment (eia) beforehand.
beyond the simple preservation of what is left of the ecology of
sensitive areas, however, there is also the possibility of using
ecotourism to actually expand the range of attractions that a tourist
will pay to come to egypt and experience.
a report released by the center for documentation of culture &
natural heritage in 2000 noted that “though the world is well
acquainted with egypt’s pharaonic heritage, today’s tour
operators are heralding a new iconography of desert mountains, palm
groves and sunny beaches.” it went on to underscore the untapped
potential of egypt’s cultural tourism resources and highlight
the commercial possibilities of expanding the opportunities offered
visitors beyond the pyramids, karnak temple and abu simbel. ecotourism,
it concluded, “is becoming one of the main areas of tourist
development in egypt.”
hard statistics on “eco-tourists” are hard to come by.
with authorities still working on the guidelines that will govern
the business, the ministry of tourism, hampered by a lack of clear
definitions, has not yet formally recognized the industry as a proper
subsection of the overall tourism business.
as an indication of the interest in egypt’s natural beauty,
however, el-kaissouni points to diving and desert safaris. in 2004,
around 2.5 million people visited egypt to dive along the red sea
coast, the north coast and even in some of the inland lakes. at
the same time, 15,000 tourists were counted as having taken desert
trips, but this, he points out, only includes those who actually
left the highway with guides in organized 4x4 excursions, and did
not include those who set out on their own or visited the oases.
room capacity, he claims, has been reached in farafra and bahariya
oases, and investment is being made to increase it.
ahmed moussa, whose company pan arab tours offers eco-based desert
trips, is one local operator who is taking the lead in exploiting
the opening, using a simbiotic combination of environmental awareness
and cultural interest to access the new market opportunities. “ecotourism
is different. we would like to keep our culture – the other
tourism does not,” he says, referring to what he and other
eco-operators see as the old, unsustainable, way of doing business.
the desert ecolodge, which he and a swiss partner built near the
dakhla oasis town of al-qasr two years ago, is now doing well. serving
a primarily european market, it offers up a tough-to-beat combination
of cultural experience in a low-impact setting. “we want the
real face of the people... if i go to nubia, i want to see them
in nubian dress...” he says.
desert ecolodge is built in entirely local style with local materials,
and with local labor. this involved considerable difficulty at some
points as moussa was forced to scour the town for carpenters who
could still do the traditional woodwork. but not only did this serve
one of ecotourism’s basic tenets – that of beneficial
engagement with the local population – but the final results
were worth the effort.
“business is going up and up,” he reports. “it’s
going very well indeed.”
the stakes in the business are significant. there were 700 million
tourists worldwide last year, and between 10 and 15 percent of them
were, according to some estimates, eco-tourists. and, most enticing
of all, this group of 70-100 million tourists are not only generally
from the better-off demographic of the market, but they are actually
interested in paying more money to consume less resources and fewer
services. it is, quite literally, “more for less.”
value in simplicity
one eco-based business has been around longer than all the rest:
basata. run by the energetic and charismatic sherif ghamrawy, the
sinai beach resort has been in operation for over 20 years. ghamrawy
is no less a businessman than he is an environmental crusader, having
founded an ngo to recycle the garbage along the coast, provide alternative
energy solutions and monitor activity along the shoreline. he positively
crackles with enthusiasm when you ask him about his business model.
“when they say let’s talk about numbers, i say ok!”
he beams and waves his hand at the line of thatch huts on the beach
behind him then spreads his fingers, “i have one hut with six
people in it – that’s d60 a night, with no breakfast.
the five-star hotel has to invest more, work harder, and they only
get a little more money... as revenue on capital, as revenue on
work, we are doing much much better.”
ghamrawy’s low-overhead approach to being low-impact has proven
as successful at growing his business as it has at protecting the
environment. with no advertising beyond a barebones website and
a simple billboard on the highway by the entrance to the camp, basata
can be fully booked through the high season, and enjoys the kind
of word-of-mouth credibility and customer loyalty that others in
the industry dream of. and he attributes a lot of his success to
the successful rooting of an environmentally sustainable facility
in a cultural ethos.
“i can see basata in 200 years a little different, but still
here. but in 10 years the hyatt will be out of fashion – nowadays
we have a fashion for resorts, [but] what i’m doing, what ecotourism
is doing, is like folklore – it’s always there, like a
galabeya.”
other eco-facilities are relative newcomers to the scene. adrere
amellal and its sister operation shali ecolodge, run by the egyptian
consulting firm environmental quality international (eqi), opened
their doors in 2000, with al karm ecolodge in the st. katherine
protectorate, sinai, and the desert ecolodge in dakhla oasis following
in the last three years. there is also a new development in wadi
gammal on the red sea coast near marsa alam and rumors of another
ecolodge in the works in sinai near taba.
adrere amellal takes a substantially different approach from basata’s
huts-by-the-sea model. charging $300 a night for a single and $400
for a double, they are aiming at european tourists with high expectations,
and they appear to be meeting them. last year, reports mohamed eissa,
the siwan manager of the lodge, business was good. “we had
many big groups: 2004 was also nice, but 2005 was more than nice.
for 15 days in october the hotel was full and november was also
good.”
the ecolodge is the centerpiece of a broader sustainable development
project in siwa that includes a project to revive the embroidery
industry in the isolated town, an organic food project and a biogas
project.
the ecolodge, eqi’s heba hebdilla explains, was born of the
firm’s long experience in resource management and good governance
consulting. their marketing savvy is also clear. hebdilla talks
of “branding siwa” and explains that european markets
for the remote community’s embroidery products have brought
substantial rewards for the community.
“prior to going to the workshop, the women are trained to improve
their techniques and how to combine the colors and which colors
to use,” she says. “over the years, there’s been
a lot more pride and honor in the women’s work which, prior
to this, was becoming something that was not so attractive.”
while the sight of traditional siwan embroidery adorning an italian
runway model’s cleavage might seem a little incongruous in
the context of the cultural sensitivity that is generally built
in to the ecotourism ethos, hebdilla says that in fact, “we
are proud of how far this [project] has evolved.”
and indeed, it’s hard to argue with an approach that is paying
off with a steady stream of high-profile customers ranging from
an upcoming american model shoot to a recent visit by the queen
of belgium.
a business with a face and a soul
al karm ecolodge, located in the spectacularly beautiful wadi
tarfa area in south sinai, has, though aimed considerably downmarket
from its siwan counterpart, a lot in common with adrere amallel.
the graceful curves of it’s neatly executed stone construction
and careful woodwork revive (with the exception of the lodge’s
solar panel hot water system) many local architectural traditions.
it is also, like the siwan lodge, designed to provide sustainable
development opportunities to the community.
apart from running what are probably sinai’s only composting
toilets, al karm is providing the bedouin experience par excellence.
the lodge is efficiently run and the simple food is excellent –
frankly, better than many multi-starred hotels in sharm al sheikh.
the local staff take care of their guests very well, and provide
a host of hiking and trekking opportunities in the area.
marketing, however, is lacking and for the time being the lodge
remains if not a completely undiscovered jewel, at least an under-discovered
one. jamil atiya, who manages the lodge and lives with his family
in a village just five minutes away, admits that a website is needed,
as well as advertising, but seems to be caught on the gap between
current cash flow and the cost of such promotion.
therein, however, is revealed one of the enormous advantages enjoyed
by ecolodges – at least at the low-cost end of the spectrum
– which is low overhead. where the trickle of customers that
al karm is currently receiving would never support a more capital-intensive
enterprise, the lodge remains where it is and, as their word-of-mouth
increases, so will their business.
moussa’s desert ecolodge in dakhla comes down in the middle
of the market. perched on a ledge above the old town of al-qasr
with its back to a spectacular line of mountains, it caters to both
bus tours and more individual travelers. moussa and his swiss partners
went to a lot of effort to capture “the local atmosphere from
a to z” in the construction of the lodge, using local materials
and techniques to create architecture that is appropriate to its
context.
“ecotourism has a soul and a face,” he explains, “you
have to do it from inside, you have to do it from your soul.”
and the soul, in many ways, is exactly what moussa is aiming at.
talking about the desert trips that he runs as an adjunct to the
ecolodge, he says “you have heard what they say? that water
cleans the body, but the desert cleans the soul. you know, we [sometimes]
take a picture of our clients on the first day to show them at the
end of their trip. the difference is incredible!” his eyes
twinkle.
apart from the fully catered desert safaris, hiking and trips to
soak in the local hot springs, the desert ecolodge also has a specially
built workshop with a view of the mountains where they offer yoga,
painting classes and lessons in arabic calligraphy – something
of a local specialty still found both on the ancient acacia lintels
of the nearby old city and on the walls of the modern homes.
it is a formula that, according to moussa, is creating a loyal customer
base. “we see a lot of repeat business, with those who come
the first time for a short stay coming back later for longer trips.”
eco not just for ecolodges
while the definition of ecotourism remains flexible, and has defied
agreement among local operators, it has become clear that a range
of options exist for those who want to make existing businesses
more eco-friendly, and to reap at least some of the benefits that
can come from appealing to the environmentally aware demographic.
environmental programs that aim to manage the way that hotel and
other tourist facilities use resources such as electricity and water
and dispose of their waste are gaining increasing popularity within
the egyptian tourist industry. such programs are seen by many as
a win-win situation: they save money by offering a planned approach
to reducing the consumption of expensive resources while at the
same time giving the facility another way of scoring marketing points
with potential consumers without having to go to the extremes of
an ecolodge.
once a plan is in place, the facility can then be certified by one
of the multitude of competing certification systems.
it can be a time-consuming and expensive process, but jan moenkedieck,
general manager of the conrad cairo, explains that the process pays
off “through an increased awareness of the local community
and in international markets” and that while these “efforts
and pr values are not directly measurable, [they] ultimately influence
a customer’s choice when being confronted with a decision of
which hotel to select.”
the five-star conrad cairo is certified by green globe 21, a process
and set of standards developed by the world travel & tourism
council after the 1992 earth summit in rio de janeiro, and named
for “agenda 21,” a plan that was intended to lay out the
manner in which western, industrialized economies could move toward
ecologically sustainable practices in economically viable ways
in practice, green globe 21 lays out a step-by-step process that
starts with “benchmarking” (establishing current usage
and comparing it to other, similar facilities), moves through the
development and implementation of a management plan, and ends, if
all goes well, with a certification that can be used to market the
facility as eco-friendly. initial registration with green globe
21 costs about $1,350 for a medium-sized hotel, and the subsequent
audits leading to certification cost another $2,000-$3,000.
according to amal riad, an auditor for sgs ltd., the international
firm that monitors the process for green globe 21 and guarantees
that it has been completed, the whole matter can usually be taken
care of without the need for extra staff. however, she says, the
time involved “depends on the commitment of management.”
one hotel that took to the certification early on was the softitel
in maadi, a suburb of cairo. “it took a year to prepare the
team and adapt ourselves to the plan,” says ahmed yakout, the
hotel’s assistant food and beverage manager, “but with
practise and help we got there. we put the certification in the
lobby and customers do notice it.”
there are now 17 hotels certified by green globe 21 in egypt, and
the organization has begun to expand its services. it is now possible
to certify almost anything that uses resources and produces waste,
from an airline to a whole town. this raises the intriguing possibility
that a destination such as the resort town of el gouna on the red
sea, which already runs a substantial resource management and recycling
program, could one day be certified.
asked whether such a certification would be a marketing advantage
for el gouna, the resort’s general manager, tamir shendidy,
responded enthusiastically: “absolutely it would, yes.”
greening the future
so what does the future hold for the egyptian ecotourism sector?
unsurprisingly, etf’s el-kaissouni paints a rosy picture. he
relates that as early as 1984 the government noticed a high demand
for desert tourism, and that this demand has been growing steadily
since. he sees future developments centering on areas set aside
from industry and destructive development.
“now we have 24 declared protected areas; this is 10 percent
of egypt. by 2017, we think that we will have 40 protected areas
covering a whole 18 percent of egypt. you know what this means?”
he pauses for rhetorical effect.
“this means that for anyone wanting to invest in the tourist
industry, almost the only way to do it is going to be an ecolodge,
as only ecolodges are allowed in these protected areas. imagine,
you’re hitting two birds with one stone: you’re getting
a location that is magnificent, and you’re not paying a lot
of money.”
despite el-kaissouni’s willingness to fight for the future,
others are not so optimistic about what it might hold. pointing
to the fact that the government still hasn’t recognized ecolodges
as a distinct type of hotel, they also worry that the kind of guidelines
and regulations that would define and control the industry are not
going to emerge from the bureaucratic process anytime soon.
environmental consultant shaalan is taking a wait and see attitude.
“look,” he says, “development is continuing, but
capacity has been built in government and awareness has been increased
generally… the challenge is to turn awareness into practice.”
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