Evaluation of Ecotourism in the Western desert: A case study of Dakhla Oasis

Nagy, Nourhan; Ayad, Tamer Hamdy; Abd El-Wahab, Marwa Ali

doi:10.21608/jaauth.2022.168728.1398

Evaluation of Ecotourism in the Western desert: A case study of Dakhla Oasis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Faculty of Tourism and Hotels management, Suez canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

² faculty of tourism and hotels - suez canal university

10.21608/jaauth.2022.168728.1398

Abstract

Desert tourism is that type of tourism for tourists who are seeking for adventure, exploration, and recreation at the same time. So, there’s no better country than Egypt for this type of tourism to practice these kinds of activities. The main problem of this research is that the western desert of Egypt possesses the resources that qualify it to be among the best countries in desert tourism. Despite this, these tourism resources aren’t analyzed, or have undergone any development. so, the researcher limited her study to Dakhla Oasis in New Valley Governorate, and the reason for choosing this region is the slow growth of the tourism movement and the lack of studies and researches on this region Therefore, in this study, the researcher first did a detailed study on the available natural environmental resources in the Dakhla Oasis so then she could evaluate them in terms of preferences weight, about (300) forms were distributed to the tourism development and environmental affairs authorities, and after collecting the forms, the researcher used the Analytic Hierarchy Process to analyze the collected data and make pair-wise comparisons for the multiple criteria to determine the preferences between those criteria, so they can be arranged hierarchically from the highest weight to the least weight, then avail the highest weighted resources in the tourism development process. Eventually, the researcher mentioned some recommendations and proposals for the optimal exploitation of these natural resources, taking into account the preservation of these resources by following the guidance of environmental preservation.

Keywords