School of Environmental Sciences Department of Geography and Planning Collaborative approach for developing a more effective regional planning framework in Egypt: ecotourism development as case study Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Emad Hemdan Mahmoud Kenawy May 2015 Abstract In Egypt, as in most developing countries, highly technical plans are drawn up, but nobody puts them into practice. They always end up gathering dust on the shelves of national agencies or local government without being utilised to make improvements to local economic or environmental well-being. The main flaws in the current plan-making process are centred on central government’s monopoly in decision-making; fragmentation between government agencies leading to multiple and often conflicting spatial plans for the same location; and an absence of effective negotiation mechanisms between various stakeholders. These problems can be clearly demonstrated with reference to ecotourism planning. Such plans are being developed in highly sensitive regions, both environmentally and culturally, and there is a wide spectrum of stakeholders who are affected and influenced by any ecotourism development. Ecotourism development planning is a complex issue to the extent that it is beyond the capacity of any one stakeholder acting alone to resolve. These arguments are circular and very unlikely to be solved without effective collaboration between relevant stakeholders; such collaboration may avoid the costs of resolving long-running conflicts and improve the implementation rate of plans. The most appropriate starting point for this is focusing on the planning process by ensuring that development plans properly reflect stakeholder interests and deal with their conflicts through face-to-face dialogue. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was ″To design a practical framework for operationalising a collaborative planning approach in regional planning using ecotourism development as a case study″. A case study approach was adopted to examine whether the formulated conceptual framework could be applied in practice. Evidence from the case studies was drawn from a critical documentary review of three Egyptian ecotourism planning initiatives, combined with observation and semi-structured interviews with 67 ecotourism experts and stakeholders. Gaps in operationalising stakeholder engagement in the current planning processes as well as the barriers which have hindered the efficiency of stakeholder participation were identified from this evaluation. The final part of this thesis attempted to provide a number of recommendations to fill in these gaps and mitigate the barriers. The most important contribution was that of developing a practical framework for collaborative ecotourism planning that could be used to enhance stakeholder engagement during the planning process, for regional development in general and ecotourism in particular. This framework attempted to provide a methodology and guidelines on the operationalisation of stakeholder engagement during the planning process, designed to increase the likely success of plan implementation. I Acknowledgments First and foremost, all thanks are to Allah, my God, to whom I devote this work. This work would not have been completed without God's will and great support from a number of people. I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude to those individuals. My thanks go first to my supervisor, Professor David Shaw, for his tremendous support, guidance, and patience from the outset to the conclusion. His insightful comments, discussions and suggestions enhanced the quality of the research considerably. His advice on both my research and my career has been priceless; I am privileged to have worked with him. And for that reason, I owe a particular debt to Professor David. I am grateful to the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education, Egyptian Cultural Bureau in London and Cairo University who generously sponsored this PhD work. Doing my PhD in the UK would not have been possible without their financial support. I express my warm thanks to my friends and all the staff members in the Civic Design Department, University of Liverpool, particularly Dr. Olivier Sykes and Dr. Urmila Thakur, who gave me so much support throughout this research. I would like to extend my appreciation to my colleagues in Egypt who facilitated and took part in the case study interviews, and so I am extremely grateful to all of those individuals who gave their time to speak to me, in particular Prof. Samy Amer, Tarek Wafik, Abbas Elzafarany, Aboulfetouh Shalaby, Assem Elgazar, Hesham El-Barmelgy, Hesham Hafez, Randa Galal, Ebtehal Ahmed and Dr.Mostafa Moneer, Mohie Shalaby, Abdel-Khalek Ibrahim, Rania Bayoumi and Walid Bayoumi. Thank you so much Eng. Mohamed El-Khatib and Amr Lashin, who facilitated connections with key interviewees and provided good documents and references. I cannot thank Hossam Tahoun enough; he was managing my affairs in my absence. Thanks also to Hatem Mostafa and Ayman Mansour. Special thanks to my family. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my father, Hemdan, father-in-law, Youssef and brother, Momen, sisters, Wallaa, Rawia, Abeer, for all of the sacrifices that you have made on my behalf. Your prayer for me was what sustained me thus far. Last but not least, without the endless support, understanding and love of my wife, Hanem, my daughters, Nour and Salma, and my son, Abu Bakr, this work would not have been achieved. II I dedicate this study To my beloved Mum, My beloved mother-in-law And my beloved Wife III Table of Contents Part One: Introduction and conceptual framework Chapter One : Introduction to the research 1.1 The rationale of the research 1 1.1.1Why the research focuses on the process of making a development plan 1 1.1.2 The need for planning using a collaborative approach 3 1.1.3 Ecotourism planning as an appropriate case study 6 1.2 The research focus 13 1. 3 Research aims and objectives 14 1. 4 Research Methodology 16 1.5 The thesis structure 20 Chapter Two: Critical review of ecotourism development and the potential of collaborative planning to address its requirements 2.1 Critical review of ecotourism 25 2.1.1 Reviewing the key fundamentals of ecotourism 26 2.1.2 The ecotourism development system 34 2.1.3 The requirements of successful ecotourism development 41 2.2 Collaborative planning approach 44 2.2.1 Collaborative planning definition and main incentives for its use 44 2.2.2 Advantages and limitations of the collaborative approach 47 2.2.3 Collaborative planning process 49 2.2.4 Critical factors for successful stakeholder collaboration 55 2.3 Conclusion 59 Chapter Three: Developing the conceptual framework 3.1 Rationale of the conceptual framework 61 3.2 Stakeholder network building 64 3.2.1 The conveners of the network 66 3.2.2 Identifying and analysing the stakeholders 68 3.3 The stakeholder engagement in planning 75 3.3.1 Stakeholder roles and their level of participation throughout the planning 75 process 3.3.2 Stakeholder involvement methods 80 3.3.3 Stakeholder motivation for participation 86 3.3.4 Preparing the stakeholders for involvement in the planning process 90 3.4 The evaluation procedures 92 3.4.1 Evaluation framework 93 3.5 The obstacles to the stakeholder involvement and collaboration 95 3.6 Conclusion 98 Part Two: Evaluating ecotourism in practice Chapter Four: Egyptian context for ecotourism development planning 4.1 Egyptian perspective 100 4.1.1 Geographical features 100 4.1.2 Social and cultural characteristics 102 4.1.3 Administration system 106 4.1.4 Economic contexts 111 4.2 Tourism development in Egypt 113 4.2.1 Challenges to Egyptian tourism development 115 4.2.2 Ecotourism development potential in Egypt 119 IV 4.2.3 Ecotourism development institutions 125 4.3 Planning system in Egypt 132 4.3.1 The planning approach evolution in Egypt 133 4.3.2 The current planning regulations 135 4.3.3 The institutions of the planning system 137 4.3.4 The planning system levels in Egypt 138 4.4 Conclusion 140 Chapter Five: Operationalising the research (case study design) 5.1 The research strategy 142 5.2 The case study procedures 153 5.3 The procedures of the case study selection 146 5.4 Case study template: data collection and analysis 152 5.4.1 Documentation 152 5.4.2 Observation 153 5.4.3 Interviews 154 5.4.4 Major challenges in collecting data 158 5.4.5 Ethical issues in data collection 159 5.4.6 Data analysis 160 5.5 Conclusion 161 Chapter Six: The Egyptian ecotourism initiatives 6.1 Fayoum Ecotourism Development Plan (FEDP) 162 6.1.1 The Governorate context 162 6.1.2 Opportunities and risks for ecotourism development 164 6.1.3 Ecotourism planning initiative 168 a) The historical context 168 b) The contemporary planning process 171 c) The stakeholder involvement activities during the planning process 178 6.2 The Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative (RSSTI) 181 6.2.1 The Governorate context 181 6.2.2 Opportunities and risks for ecotourism development 183 6.2.3 Ecotourism planning initiative 187 a) The historical context 187 b) The contemporary planning process 190 c) The stakeholder involvement activities during the planning process 200 6.3 Ecotourism for Sustainable Development in the New Valley Governorate 203 (ESDNVG) 6.3.1 The Governorate context 203 6.3.2 Opportunities and risks for ecotourism development 204 6.3.3 Ecotourism planning initiative 208 a) The contemporary planning process 208 b) The