, vol. 13, issue ISSN: 2090-0694, pp. 19-36, 2014.
Egypt is a country that is endowed with one of the world’s richest and most spectacular environment suitable for different types of tourism. Despite the diversity and richness of those natural heritage resources, the industrial and economic situation of the country is in turmoil. Such a situation leads the country to intensively rely on developing, and extensively using, its resources to satisfy its economic demands and requirements without much care to the environment. Since the eve of the seventies until now, unsustainable forms of tourism development have been initiated upon the natural and historical dimensions of the country’s heritage. Consequently, the country’s resources have been inefficiently consumed to a degree that the country has lost a number of its sensitive sites and resources. The paper deals with one of the natural heritage resources of the country, the coastal areas. Egypt endows more than 2450 km of highly scenic outstanding beaches overlooking the Mediterranean and the Red sea, and has adopted a highly intensive resort tourism industry, both on the national and international tourism markets. The types of resort development that took place have exerted deep negative impacts on the ecological integrity and stability of such highly sensitive coastal areas. The paper provokes the importance to adapt and promote the concept of eco-efficient design for promoting a sustainable form of resort development. Based on theoretical and practical analysis an eco-meter for eco-efficient resort planning and design is innovated. The eco-meter is tested and applied on the case study of Marina al-Alamien Resort, to be used as a guideline for promoting sustainability among existing and future resort designs.
