Sustainable Heritage tourism in Egypt

Abstract

Egypt enjoys a geographical location, and a moderate climate all the yearround, along with its smooth vast coastlines, and beaches with its unique treasures of coral reefs, providing Egypt with advantages of a competitive edge. Besides cultural and archaeological tourism, many tourism attraction types have come into existence and addressed broader segments of tourists across the world, including recreational tourism, beaches tourism, religious tourism, therapeutic tourism, eco-tourism, sports tourism, golf tourism, safari tourism, desert tourism, yacht tourism, and maritime tourism in addition to festivals tourism, and cultural events and finally conferences and exhibitions tourism [Riham, 2015]. The tourism industry is a major contributor to the gross national product of many nations (Reige and Perry, 2000) and is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Sustainability has become an important topic and concept in relation to tourism planning and development (Inskeep 1991; Southgate & Sharpley 2002; Yuksel, Bramwell & Yuksel 1999). The aim of this research to highlight that there is no tourist attractions related to intangible heritage, natural heritage, within the frame work of sustainable tourism, also tourists are not interested in heritage attractions other than archeological sites, and current tour itineraries are not conductive to heritage and sustainable tourism.