Invitation and Final Call for Papers
"Sustainable Tourism Egypt 2003 Conference"
Cairo, Egypt, 22-24 April 2003

Sustainable Tourism Egypt (STE) 2003, the International Conference on Tourism Development in Environmentally Sensitive Areas is an invitation by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism to join efforts in an urgent initiative to push forward with its progressive sustainable tourism program targeted at putting environmental protection and conservation at the top of Egypt's tourism development agenda in current as well as future tourism development plans.

Being an undisputed gateway to one of the world's fastest growing tourism markets, and with 200,000 hotel rooms planed over 15 years, Egypt has realized one of the world's largest tourism development plans. Associated with this rapid growth are the international popularity of its natural environment and the potential threat of degradation to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Under the auspices and with the participation of HE Minister of Tourism, Dr. Mamdouh El-Beltaugi, the event, being conceived under Egypt's Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative, marks three years on the birth of Egypt's sustainable tourism policy program, ten years on the declaration of the 1992 Biodiversity Convention, the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development and the UN proclamation of 2002 as the "International Year of Eco-tourism."

In recognition of sustainable tourism as a development philosophy that can advance environmental conservation and promote the sustainable use of natural resources, and a catalyst for economic and local community development, Egypt is seeking through this conference to bring to the forefront issues of regional concern and cover a wide geographical range of case studies for presentation and discussion during the event. The aim is to foster technical interchange on all aspects of sustainable tourism, with the underlying theme "Sustainable Tourism Development in Environmentally Sensitive Areas" with emphasis on highlighting Egypt's recent sustainable tourism initiative on the Red Sea Coast.

STE 2003 is held in Cairo, Egypt in the period 22-24 April 2003, and will be attended by a large number of international relevant organizations and institutions, international environmental and tourism experts, bilateral and multilateral donor institutions and projects, as well as prominent tourism figures and developers representing various tourism projects and products from Egypt and the Middle East region.

Five plenary sessions on
1 Best Practices in Tourism Operations;
2 Environmental Impact Management of Coastal Tourism Developments;
3 Land Use Planning and Zoning;
4 Global Organizations in Sustainable Tourism;
5 International Sustainable
Tourism Experiences/Case Studies will be conducted to provide an opportunity to share experiences through multidisciplinary consideration of management-related themes. Three in-depth workshops will follow to present case studies from Egypt's sustainable tourism efforts and feature products and outputs from the on-going RSSTI program, as well as identify gaps and priorities for future action. A poster session will be held in parallel with the Conference activities.
The Conference Program Committee and Conference Proceedings Editors welcome submittals for conference papers and case studies.
Therefore, we are honored to extend an invitation to you to participate with a paper on one of the topic areas described below. The Conference can only incorporate a limited number of papers, and therefore the paper title and one-page abstract should be electronically submitted by 10 February 03, and preferably as soon as possible. A completed paper must be submitted by 05 March 2003.
The Conference Program Committee will invite authors of select papers for attending the conference and will cover costs related to international travel to
Cairo as well as accommodation and local travel expenses within Egypt.
Accepted papers will be published in the bound STE 2003 Conference Proceedings.
The Conference Proceedings will be distributed to all conference participants on CD-ROM (approximately 500). The editors of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, an international research and review publication with subscribers in over 60 countries on all continents, will consider a number of the papers submitted at the conference and included in the proceedings for possible future publication, which might take the form of a theme issue.

Submittals can include research papers or case studies on
1 Environmental sensitive areas and tourism development;
2 Eco-tourism and eco-lodges;
3 Environmental impact assessment and management (strategic, regional and integrated);
4 Coastal zone planning and management;
5 Land use planning and zoning for tourism development and environmental conservation;
6 Best practices for tourism development;
7 Integrated tourism planning and multi-resort developments,
8 Urban and rural rehabilitation for tourism development,
9 Regional and integrated coastal tourism management initiatives.

A brochure for STE 2003 is currently being printed and will be distributed soon with further guidelines on paper submission and registration of poster exhibits. We would appreciate any assistance you could extend in disseminating information for this purpose, particularly to potential conference participants. STE 2003 will bring us closer to our joint vision of a 'A Sustainable Future for Tourism'.

For more information you may contact me at:

Ahmed H Hassan ahassan1@rssti.com
STE 2003 Conference Program Committee
STE 2003 Conference Proceedings Editor Committee
Task Manager, Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative (RSSTI)
Egyptian Tourism Development Authority (TDA)/USAID-Egypt
Nile Towers 9th Floor,
21/23 Giza Street, Giza, Cairo, EGYPT
Tel: (20) (2) 570 3455 or 570 2256
Fax: (20) (2) 571 7544
Direct tel: (20) (10) 500 6768

Please join us in April 2003.

Thank you.
Ahmed Hassan

Sustainable Tourism Egypt (STE) 2003, the International Conference on Tourism Development in Environmentally Sensitive Areas is being organized under the Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative (RSSTI), an Egyptian Tourism Development Authority (TDA)-implemented program with funding provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented under the broader Egyptian Environmental Policy Project (EEPP), with technical assistance provided by PA Consulting Group