Nature Reserves as a Tool for Developing Ecotourism in Egypt

Abstract

The natural environment is the main focus of eco-tourism, and the ecotourism industry is considered one of the important industries in recent times because of its great importance in supporting the comprehensive development process economically, socially, politically and psychologically, as the fields of tourism and its various service activities and its relationship to sustainable development have become the interest of many scholars of economics, geography, sociology and psychology. Natural reserves in Egypt also receive great interest in tourists as one of the most important elements of environmental and tourism propaganda, as the number of its visitors reaches about 1.5 million visitors, representing 25% of tourism annually, and nature reserves are among the most important means of preserving ecosystems and biological diversity, as they represent a solid base for development, tourism and environmental investment in Egypt. In view of the absence of a general approach and framework that defines methods and policies for dealing with protected areas, as well as the deterioration of the environmental balance despite the efforts made to preserve the natural environment, and neglecting the role of the planning and design dimension in the process of environmental protection, whether in relation to the division of protected areas internally into regions or the distribution of activities. Therefore, the research is concerned with establishing principles for planning and designing natural protected areas in Egypt to achieve the objectives of environmental protection, and to organize and legalize the distribution of activities and uses in a manner that does not conflict with the objectives of environmental protection required through environmental, legal, economic, historical, cultural and urban compatibility.