COUNTRY: Egypt SHORT DESCRIPTIONBackgroundTourism in Egypt, especially the hotel sector, is an important pillar of its economy. While growth in visitor numbers and an expansion of Egypt’s tourism destinations means increasing local employment, it also puts pressure on natural resources. A lack of adequate waste management, water and sewage systems, rising energy consumption which all threaten the local environment, particularly, the fragile coral and underwater ecosystem, are the disadvantage of rapid and uncontrolled tourism growth. To combat the negative impacts of such developments, one of the leaders of the Egyptian tourism sector - Orascom Hotels & Development - in cooperation with the German development specialists AGEG Consultants, joined forces within the GIZ PPP Programme and commonly set up the first sustainability initiative for the Egyptian hotel sector (www.greenstarhotel.org). Project AimThe overall objective of the project was to get all relevant tourism stakeholders together and to develop a set of tailor-made sustainability standards for the Egyptian hotel industry. These sustainability standards should be nationally and internationally recognised and test-implemented in the pilot destination El Gouna. To be able to introduce, promote and market these standards within the hotel industry, a recognisable brand (Green Star Hotels) should be developed. Services ProvidedThe following measures were carried out by AGEG Consultants:
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