- Integrated socio-economic Development for accelerating the regional Role of Port-Said in Tourism Development of Egypt    click here to open paper content368 kb
by    El-Bastawisy, Magdy & Helmy, Abd-Al-Whab & Hassan Ali, Rania | mbstwsy@yahoo.com   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
The purpose is to accelerate the city regional role in tourism development to overcome the economic decline. The city and its region enjoy a wide range of tourism potentials. A tourism development strategy is proposed for the city as a launching urban base for supporting local and regional tourism development. This will allow Port-Said to create new jobs and retain its population.
Abstract
The main concern of this paper is using socio-economic development for accelerating the regional role of Port-Said in tourism development of Egypt. The investigation of the economic situation of Port-Said was used to define the importance of enhancing alternative economic activities, particularly tourism, to overcome the side effects of eliminating the commercial free zone policy from the city. This could be achieved through utilization and integration of existing tourism development potentials of the city and its region. Within this context, tourism development, definitions, bases and limitations were investigated to define its capabilities in supporting national income and decreasing the environmental impacts of economic development. In addition, international experiences of local and regional tourism development were examined to provide background experiences and outline planning and environmental issues that may arise during development process of Port-Said. Previous development policies provided for the development of Suez Canal zone and Third Region were also reviewed to figure out their role and impact on the development of Port-Said. Moreover, the assessment of tourism assets and development potentials of Port-Said and its region were investigated along with the constraints. The results proofed that Port-Said enjoys a wide range of tourism assets and development potentials such as location, moderate climate, infrastructure; and tourism facilities, services and activities. These assets and potentials could support the role of the city for short and medium term of local as well as regional tourism development. Finally, outlines and general recommendations for tourism development of Port-Said were proposed, which could also enhance the quality of the environment and accelerate the regional role of Port-Said in tourism development of Egypt.

Keywords
Integrated Socio-economic Development, Sustainable Development, Regional Planning, Development Strategy, Development Axes, Tourism Development,
Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration
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