What Are the Main Challenges Impeding Implementation of the Spatial Plans in Egypt Using Ecotourism Development as an Example?

Emad Kenawy, Taher Osman and Aref Alshamndy
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Emad Kenawy: Department of Geography and planning, University of Liverpool, L697ZT Liverpool, UK
Taher Osman: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, 12613 Giza, Egypt
Aref Alshamndy: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, 12613 Giza, Egypt

Social Sciences, 2017, vol. 6, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: In Egypt, 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. This is because such plans did not reflect the stakeholder interests nor deal with their conflicts. The collaborative planning approach is exalted as one of the best methods to help reach a consensus between the stakeholders about the issues and to advance shared solutions and then increase the likelihood of successful implementation of a plan. However, the stakeholder collaboration and engagement practice in Egypt remains ineffective. This research seeks to investigate and understand the challenges and barriers that have hindered the efficiency of stakeholder engagement during ecotourism planning as a sectorial case study by focusing on two case studies, and critiquing existing experiences of ecotourism development planning based upon a conceptual framework for investigating and understanding those challenges. Evidence was drawn from a critical documentary review, and combined with observation and semi-structured interviews with 56 ecotourism experts and stakeholders. The analysis suggests that the stakeholder engagement was tokenistic, and the central government was still dominant. This is a result of three groups of challenges including deficiencies in operationalising stakeholder engagement and challenges associated with the government and non-government stakeholder groups.

Keywords: spatial plans implementation; planning process; collaborative approach; ecotourism and stakeholders engagement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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