Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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The final frontier

By Rehab Saad

Luxury can invite righteousness -- with wealth comes charitable inclinations; with fame comes the adoption of pet causes. The better we live, the more we can afford to be choosy, which is one way of looking at the latest trend known as eco-tourism. As a new generation of jet-setting tourists find their options enlarged from the south of France, to the Bahamas, to the Seychelles Islands, a growing number aren't just looking for sea and sand. They are travellers with a cause.

Egypt's Red Sea coast has boosted its profile with near-lightning speed development and visits from heads of state. Now top hotels and tourism officials are going the extra mile to lure any and every finicky tourist: they're going green. Five major Red Sea resorts -- Sheraton Soma Bay; Kahramana resort, in Marsa Alam; Shams Alam resort, south of Marsa Alam; Sheraton Miramar, in Al-Gouna; and Utopia Hotel, in Qusseir -- are leading the pack by taking part in a ground-breaking Ministry of Tourism programme.

The 18-month project -- the Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative (RSSTI) -- will work to impose tough, but practical environmentally-minded guidelines on hotel management. A collaboration between the Tourism Development Authority (TDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the aim of the project is to show hotel owners, managers and staff how their operations can run "greener and cleaner." Though separate hotels have endeavoured to become more environmentally conscious, this is the first project of it kind, in scale and reach, to be conducted in North Africa or the Middle East.

Similar programmes have been admirably successful in a handful of other regions around the world. It's easy to see why development officials chose the Red Sea area to implement the project: it is an area of high-density tourism development where scores of hotels and resorts have already been built without taking into account environmental considerations. "These activities have caused unforeseen damage on some stretches of coastline -- on the coastal reefs and on desert areas," TDA head Adel Radi explained.

The hotels party to RSSTI have agreed to open their books and their doors to nosy environmental specialists, who have been running over the hotels' operations with a fine-tooth comb. Fastidious assessors evaluated the hotels' surrounding areas, front and back offices, kitchens and laundries, and pounced on any activities by hotel staff that might impact negatively on the environment or waste resources. RSSTI programme manager Christopher Howell said that the assessments have shed light on which hotels were already doing well, and then pinpointed areas for improvement. Once all the information is gathered, wide-ranging recommendations will be made.

All this groundwork will eventually form the basis of what the TDA's Radi called an overall environmental management system (EMS). The EMS is being envisioned as a far-reaching set of guidelines for all hotels to ensure efficient and environmentally-friendly ways to run all aspects of their operations. "Increasingly, tourists are looking for hotels and resorts that can provide services that do not compromise the environment," Radi said. "So you see, there is a real need for hotels in Egypt to start not only 'thinking' green, but 'acting' green as well." Major international tour companies are becoming environmental watchdogs themselves, Radi explained. "Some operators have adopted policies not to recommend or book tourists in hotels that do not carry 'green' accreditation from such organisations as the international Green Globe 21."

Helping hotels gain accreditation is a large part of the project, but launching the mission wasn't easy. Every location is unique and so every hotel has individual environmental concerns. Ultimately, however, it was a matter of convincing hotel managements to undertake necessary measures to ensure efficiency. In the long run, proper management and a heightened awareness of environmental concerns will pay off for these hotels, but in the short term, taking the medicine was tough to swallow. Hotels were instructed to cut back on energy and water use, to scale back waste production and to install the latest waste treatment processes.

In bedrooms, air-tight windows and doors were installed, ceiling fans were put in, and a linen re-use programme was set up. In bathrooms, a low-flow shower-heads were installed, along with water-saving toilets, a towel re-use card, and refillable soap dispensers. Throughout the hotel grounds, energy efficient bulbs were installed for ground lighting and in the lobby, the hotels now provide details of local arts and crafts centres and offer eco-friendly tours to local natural and heritage sites. Hotels, like the Shams Alam Hotel, have made efforts to encourage people to rely more on fresh air being circulated in the room. Keith Sproule, RSSTI deputy programme manager, explained that the hotel has designed its windows and doors so that air can move freely through the room, thus reducing the need to run air-conditioning.

But, of course, even the best of intentions will amount to nothing if guidelines are not implemented -- or understood. Hotel staff are the unofficial keepers of each resort efforts and thus represent the most important factor in the project's success. In practical terms, it is the staff -- not TDA officials or USAID programme planners -- who turn the lights on and off, clean the swimming pools, dispose of waste and launder towels and bedsheets. If the staff doesn't care about the hotel's impact on the environment, then there is little point in posturing about eco-conscious advancement. "It is for this reason that RSSTI trainers are devoting particular attention to the hotel staff," Radi explained. In short, the EMS programme is the law that resort staff will have to live by for RSSTI to bear fruit.

All this, so bikini-clad tourists can rest easy that they have spent their money wisely.

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