Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tourism Egypt'

This thesis provides an examination of the managerial policies adopted by the Egyptian tourism sector in planning and implementing the repositioning of the image of Egypt from the mid 1960s onwards. It aimed at augmenting its traditional cultural identity with an additional hedonistic dimension, derived from the development of beach resort tourism on the Red Sea coast. In addition to exploring the specific elements of the Egyptian repositioning, including an evaluation of its success, the study seeks to identify from the analysis, the key issues and managerial requirements involved in the repositioning of destinations in general, and proposes a preliminary model of the content and sequencing of the repositioning process. The study employed a qualitative methodology involving ethnographic fieldwork with key informants, chosen as representatives of the main categories of stakeholders who participated in Egyptian tourism planning of the repositioning programme. It took its direction and procedures from an adaptation of Grounded theory, in which three main sources of data were collected and appraised: ethnographic interview responses, direct observation, and documentation generated both internally and externally. The results revealed by this study suggest that, though total tourist flows generally increased after the repositioning, and the proportion of tourists visiting the Red Sea beach resorts, rather than the cultural locations, also increased, the lack of proper evaluation mechanisms of the programme made it difficult to attribute causally these changes to public sector managerial decisions, rather than to other variables in the broader external environment (world tourism growth trends, power of the international operators, price competitiveness, etc.). Moreover, in analysing the mechanics of the programme, a number of key areas of deficiency in strategic planning and marketing practice were identified. These deficiencies included: weak or non-existent marketing research; poor market targeting and product portfolio analysis; inadequate planning and evaluation procedures; weak communication, and integration of effort between stakeholders; and limited awareness of cutting edge promotional practices. The normative model of repositioning offered at the end of the Results section of this study seeks to address some of the problems and deficiencies disclosed in the Egyptian case study, by suggesting some of the desiderata of best practice when destinations need to augment, modify, or change their image.

Sustainability has become critically important for the success of any balanced tourism development. This cannot be achieved without full consideration and integration of sustainable development principles into the planning mechanisms of the tourist destination/s. This study was initiated to justify the role of planning as a tool for implementing sustainability in tourism. It has hypothesized that a complete evaluation of performance of the tourism planning mechanism should be considered as a starting point, highlighting the needs, strengths, weaknesses and deficiencies of tourism planning mechanisms adopted by tourist destinations. The research method proposed an assessment system for the different levels of the planning mechanism (policies, strategies, plans and techniques) from a sustainable point of view and thus contributed to the field of tourism planning assessment and evaluation. The research divided sustainability in tourism into four main dimensions: economic, environmental (natural and manmade), socio - cultural and continuity of the development process. It developed a set of key criteria to assess each dimension at every level of the planning mechanism. As Egypt was selected as a case study, the research offered an analysis of its tourism planning mechanism with a focus on points of strengths and weaknesses at each level. Primary data (face to face interviews) and secondary data (tourist policy and documented tourist plans) were employed to examine each element of sustainability. This was followed by recommendations and suggestions for enhancing the performance of Egyptian tourism planning to attain more sustainable development goals and to implement more efficient tools for the application of sustainable tourism. The research also highlighted the role of assessment and evaluation in tourism studies and the importance of conducting an ongoing assessment of tourist planning and development processes. This in turn leads to improving the functions of each planning stage, monitoring the whole planning process and controlling deviations in the planning performance. This study has directed attention towards the field of evaluation and assessment in tourism and has introduced a new path for sustainable tourism development planning.

The thesis aims to identify the main factors that significantly affect tourism demand for Egypt. Both time series data and panel data are used to model and forecast tourism demand for Egypt from all origins, as well as three individual regions of origin, including Europe, Arab and the Americas. The methodological and econometric approaches introduced in this thesis proceed from the simple to the more complex structure to obtain more reliable estimation. First, we estimate tourism demand for Egypt using the co-integration and error correction (CI/ECM) approach based on a single equation, followed by using a system of equations approach over the period 1970-2009. All the estimated econometric methods, in addition to two univariate time series methods, are used to generate ex-post forecasting for all the models over the period 2005-2009. The preferred method is used in producing ex-ante forecasting of future tourism demand for Egypt for the period 2010-2014. Panel co-integration techniques are also used to estimate tourism demand models over the period 1980-2009. Finally, the causality relationship between tourism demand and its economic determinants is estimated based on panel data analysis, which may provide more guidance for policy makers in Egypt. The results indicate that tourism demand for Egypt is found to be co-integrated with its fundamental determinants at the 1% significance level, with a high adjustment speed toward the steady state equilibrium. The importance of long-run income for all tourists from different nationalities is affirmed; with an elastic demand for non-Arab tourists. Price is also an important determinant, with a different effect in each originating region. It takes less than unity value for all tourists, except the Arab. Tunisia is found to be the most significant alternative to Egypt, with a complementary effect for Europe and the Americas tourists, but substitutability effect for Arab tourists. Hotel capacity is a significant and positive factor for all nationalities, except the Americas. Globalization is important in all models; it has a positive effect for all non-Arab nationalities. Political instability has a significant and negative effect, with the most effect on the Americas. All the determinants Granger cause tourist arrivals in the long run, but globalization and hotel capacity are of great importance with a bidirectional effect with tourist arrivals. Ex-post forecasting results show that the CI/ECMs outperform the other time series methods and produce highly accurate forecasts. The number of arrivals and nights from all origin markets is likely to increase in absolute terms (2010-2014), but with slower growth than recent trend.

Economic activity is becoming not only more internationalised, but, more significantly, it is becoming increasingly globalised. Globalisation is always regarded as a product of the liberalisation that has been the hallmark of economic policy throughout the world during the past two decades. Globalisation and liberalisation feed off each other and the former has certainly set in motion forces working to accelerate liberalisation. Both globalisation and liberalisation have increased the potential for international trade to further establish itself as an engine of growth and an important mechanism for integrating countries into the global economy. Tourism is not only the dominant service in world trade, it has also become one of the most important industries in the world and its economic impacts are vital for many countries. The tourism industry has long supported the idea of services agreements and has become a major force of the globalisation of international trade, particularly in services. The significance of tourism as a source of income and employment and as a major factor in the balance of payments for many countries has been attracting increasing attention. Governments, private sector entities, regional and local authorities, and others with an interest in international trade and economic development have recognised the role to be played by tourism. If the barriers to worldwide travel were eliminated or reduced substantially, international trade in tourism services is likely to increase dramatically. The globalisation of production and the liberalisation of trade offer opportunities for all countries and enable developing countries to play a more active role in the world economy. However, these newfound opportunities do not come without a price and this is to be found in the increasing complexity associated with interdependence including instability and marginalisation. Therefore, the net result is one of trade off between economic gains and costs. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the only international body dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the trading nations of the world. Its main functions, as defined in article III of the Agreement, are to facilitate the implementation, administration and operation of the Uruguay Round Agreements (GATT, GATS, TRIPS, act) and to provide a forum for negotiations among members. The WTO's overriding objective is to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably. There is no doubt that the WTO and the GATS have assisted the growth of international trade in goods and services. However, the success of such instruments relies upon markets behaving in a Ricardian manner incorporating the fluidity and transparency that form the substance of those markets. The purpose of this research is, through analysis, to gain insight into the impacts of liberalisation brought about by the GATS on tourism development in Egypt and to explore stakeholders' perceptions of tourism liberalisation. This research aims to analyse the terms, codes and practice of the WTO and the GATS and their implications for the tourism sector. This examination is intended to enhance understanding of how the General Agreement is intended to work and how it may help governments exploit the system to their own advantage, especially in the developing countries. The research has five broad objectives. The first is to evaluate the level of openness in Egypt's trade in services in general and tourism in particular. The second is to examine and display the main features of Egypt's GATS commitments. Third, is to explore whether the macroeconomic environment offers the necessary conditions for tourism liberalisation and for private business development (foreign and local alike). Fourth, to determine whether the institutional climate is amenable to the growth and competitiveness of private firms. Finally, to evaluate the potential impacts of GATS on tourism development in Egypt. This research also has the objective of developing policy options that embrace and reflect all the major relevant concepts of tourism liberalisation. There are likely to be transitional impacts of trade liberalisation through WTO and GATS. The World Bank (2000) states that globalisation and liberalisation do not benefit everyone equally. Developing countries and the least developing countries are always the least able to take advantage of the opportunities that GATS presents, and globalisation and liberalisation may lead to an increase in inequality in these countries. The future of tourism development in Egypt, as well as the ability of Egypt to integrate successfully into the global trading system will depend upon its ability to strengthen its capacity to produce internationally competitive services and upon the extent of liberalisation in the services sectors in general and the tourism sector in particular. In today's globalised market, a country competes with every other destination in the type and price of tourism it offers. The main findings of this research indicate that if Egypt is to be successful in competing in the international tourism market, standards of excellence must be introduced for its products, particularly for infrastructure and accommodation and services. Management and administration of the sector must improve. Governments must shift to policies that encourage tourism. For example, the sector cannot develop without improvements in public health and personal safety in tourist areas. Air policies that support ease of access and traffic growth are also critical. Governments must also invest in expanded human resource development and institutional capacity building, and improve environmental mitigation and protection. The value to the final consumer is determined by the quality of all these components of the tourism package. Given its cross-sectoral nature, tourism will only develop in a sustainable manner if it is integrated into the country's overall policies and economic and physical planning mechanisms and if linkages are created across the many sectors spanned by tourism. Partial policy measures will be inadequate to address vested interests, underlying economic relationships and generic social or physical constraints. The creation of highly competitive products through good management of natural and built tourist assets is most likely to convince the international industry to promote one country over another in the global market place. Countries can influence these external industry managers through an effective and continuing promotion and marketing campaign, but will be successful only if there is a highquality, competitive product to sell that competes in value and not just price. It is hoped that these findings, which offer an understanding of the impacts of GATS and WTO on tourism development, may help address national and regional tourism development policy-making and strategies in developing countries.

In this study the use of tourism as a means of promoting development in Islamic countries in the Middle East is discussed. In tourism generally the image of a host country and its people is an important factor in the choice of a destination. In the case of Islamic countries image is of especial importance because of the cultural differences between them and Western countries and because of Western perceptions of the resurgence of Islam. The present Western image of Egypt is considered. An image may be formed in two ways. It may be organic or it may be induced. In the case of Egypt the organic image is found to be particularly relevant because of the kinds of influences to which potential tourists are likely to have been exposed in a Western culture in which Orientalist influences may have induced negative stereotypes of Islam and Muslims. A distorted organic image attributable to Orientalism may then have been perpetuated and emphasised by the induced image resulting from the way in which the destination image is promoted by the tourism industry. In its attempts to manipulate the potential tourist the industry may knowingly or unknowingly have created a false image. A misconceived advertising approach may give rise to disappointment in tourists who find that their expectations are not realised and may thereby damage the image of the country as a tourist destination. The use of tourism to promote economic growth in any developing country may lead to a divergence of opinions between the economists and planners, for whom the foremost consideration is the contribution which the tourist industry can make to the economy, and the mass of ordinary people who see tourism as being primarily a foreigners' industry which has little relevance to their lives. If they perceive that tourists have an unfavourable image of them, that can give rise to resentment. The role of Islamist extremism in the decline of the tourism industry in Egypt is explored. This involves a consideration of the effect of the rise in the Middle East in recent years of radical Islamism, with a growing number of people in favour of the creation of an Islamic state and the restoration of Islamic law. Although only a small minority may be prepared to use violent means to achieve their aims, extremist violence has greatly reduced the number of tourists willing to take what they believe to be the high risk of a visit to Egypt. A general review of tourism in Egypt sets out the present state of the industry; explains how certain parts of it are developing, and explores the possibility of the development of an Islamic heritage product, which would supplement the Pharaonic product and which might result in tourism becoming more acceptable to the Islamist element among the Egyptian people. Finally, an examination of the country's potential markets and products highlights those which it is hoped will attract greater numbers of tourists to Egypt.

'Policy analysis is one activity for which there can be no fixed program, for policy analysis is synonymous with creativity, which may be stimulated by theory and sharpened by practice.' (Wildavsky 1979: 3) This study is concerned with analyzing the tourism public policy process within the framework of institutional arrangements, power arrangements, values, interests, and motivations of the principal actors involved in the process. It aims to explain and analyze the development process of the North West Coast (NWC) region of Egypt which experienced the implementation of a tourism public policy that was employed to assist with the resolution of Egypt's human settlement and economic problems. Accordingly, it examines the national development challenges, the policies adopted to address them and the coherent history of the tourism policy process executed in the NWC region. The study evaluates the tourism policy in terms of how far it achieved its promises. The findings of the research support the research hypothesis, which postulates that short-term political expediency constrained the implementation of national and regional policy objectives. Political expediency was examined in both the policy formulation and policy implementation stages of the policy process and was manifested when the actors involved were found seeking special advantage through public policy. In addition, it was manifested when institutions (each with its own preferences) struggled to control resources and implement their agendas. Furthermore, it was manifested when certain concessions to a powerful clan or a kin were awarded to gain more political powers. Accordingly, the theoretical framework is based on analyzing three dynamic and interrelated fields: First, the politics of public policy implementation, with particular reference to tourism as an instrument for development. Second, the concept of sustainable tourism which is utilized as an analytical tool and as an idealized model against which tourism development in the NWC region has been evaluated, particularly because it was an overall objective for the region's tourism policy. Third: the extent of government activity in formulating tourism public policy and managing tourism development. The research shows that much of the deviations from achieving the national and regional policy objectives can be explained through the interactions, variations and relationships between institutional structures, power arrangements and the differences in values, motivations, and interests of the actors and institutions involved in formulating and implementing the tourism policy in the NWC region.

The diploma thesis deals with economy of Egypt and its position in the international tourism market. The aim of the thesis is to analyse economy and tourism of Egypt and define their relationship. The thesis is focused on the period of global economic crises and the following political crises, and tries to emphasize the impact of these two events. The thesis is divided into three chapters; the first one is a theoretical basis for the analysis itself. The second chapter is devoted to an outline of the political situation and analyses development of the main macroeconomic indicators in the context of the events of past few years. The third chapter analyses tourism and its effect on the economy.

The success of marketing physical products has led many scholars to suggest that marketing is a universal activity which can be applied with equal success to the sale of services. The purpose of this research is to examine the relevance and contribution of marketing to the tourism sectors in general, and the extent to which marketing concepts and modern marketing practices have been accepted and implemented by the Egyptian Tourism Bodies, and the British and Irish tour operators in promoting Egypt as a tourist destination in Britain and Ireland in the particular. A thorough examination of the literature regarding the applicability of marketing concepts and techniques to all tourism related sectors as well as the similarities and/or differences between goods marketing and services (tourism) marketing was carried out, based upon which specific hypotheses have been formalised and tested. The empirical investigation was carried out in the period between May and the end of October, 19 84. Two studies were conducted in order to verify the existence of the so-called marketing oriented philosophy in the Egyptian tourism related sectors, and the British and Irish tour operating companies offering Egypt as a tourist destination in Britain and Ireland. The first study was conducted with the British and Irish tour operators. Two questionnaires were distributed to all 34 British and Irish tour operators promoting visits to Egypt. The first questionnaire aimed at investigating their familiarity with Egypt as a tourist destination from which it was hoped to assess the marketing efforts of the Egyptian Tourism Bodies. The second one aimed at examining the marketing activities undertaken by tour operators to promote Egypt as a tourist destination. Another study was conducted with the actual British tourist customer of Egypt. A pre-tour questionnaire was distributed to 750 visitors who were going to Egypt in order to determine what image and expectations they have about the country. A post-tour questionnaire was distributed to another 750 visitors who were coming back from Egypt in order to assess their level of satisfaction with the country as a tourist destination. The findings of the field work reveal that the Egyptian Tourism Bodies are far from becoming marketing oriented and they have a long way to go to make effective use of marketing concepts and techniques. Thus, the marketing concept, with its total integration of business activities designed to provide customer satisfaction at a profit, is not wholly adopted and implemented by the British and Irish tour operators in promoting Egypt as a tourist destination. In addition, there is still room for possible improvement in many areas in order to fulfil the existing/potential customers' needs and maintain their satisfaction.

The main objective of this research is to increase academic understanding as well as provide managerial implications in relation to the determinants of the levels of web adoption for marketing purposes by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt. Web adoption is specifically defined in this research as the ownership of a website to communicate and/or deliver travel services to a target market. Providing facilities for inquiry, reservation, communication and booking are examples of adoption of the web to provide travel services. This research is thus interested in how the web is being used to interact with customers. Additionally, the levels of adoption represent the different levels that SMEs go through in their adoption process starting with not owning a website to being a simple adopter to being a sophisticated adopter. Non-adopters do not own a web site. Simple adopters own web pages that have facilities for information provision and communication whereas sophisticated adopters own web pages that have facilities for online booking and completing a full transaction online. It is worth noting that the levels of adoption are interrelated and are not static but are part of a process of eEvolution. This research provides an empirical contribution by studying the tourism sector as an example of a service industry and investigating the relative importance of the factors that determine the different levels of web adoption by SMEs in the context of a developing country. In order to achieve this objective, the research integrates existing theories in order to develop a conceptual framework for the determinants of Web adoption in the tourism sector. Besides Roger’s model of innovation adoption, the Resource-based view of the firm, a theory that deals specifically with firm resources and capabilities, is used to provide valuable information about the firm-specific factors that are thought to have an influence on innovation adoption. The model developed in this research is based purely on existing research and it integrates different theoretical perspectives. In addition, the researcher empirically tests this framework using both qualitative and quantitative data from travel agents in Egypt. This research is divided into three main parts. The first part (chs. 2 &3) introduces the literature where the concept of Internet marketing is presented and the key themes of research on Internet marketing are discussed. A literature review on Internet adoption by firms is then presented and the gaps in literature highlighted. The key literature includes defining the web as an innovation and organizational adoption of innovation. The different ways in which innovation adoption has been studied are discussed and a classification of the different factors influencing innovation adoption is made. A review of the existing research on the factors influencing technological innovation adoption by organizations is then provided. Finally, Internet adoption including the web by SMEs is discussed. The main gaps identified are lack of research on SMEs adoption of the web from a level perspective (i.e. distinguishing between use for communication versus use for transactions), lack of research on innovation adoption in developing countries, too much focus on consumer adoption in comparison to organizational adoption of innovations, shortage of research on innovation adoption from a level perspective and a need to identify the critical factors that affect each level of adoption. A conceptual framework (ch.4) is then presented, based on integrating existing theories and literature, and a series of hypotheses derived. The second part starts by discussing the tourism sector in Egypt (ch.5) which is selected to be the research context and then outlines the methodology (ch.6). This research relies on triangulation with a mixed methods research approach which combines both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative work provides depth to the analysis. It is used to compare with the proposed model in an attempt to provide a more complete picture of the investigated phenomenon. The quantitative work tests the hypotheses and indicates generalizability of the results. It consists of descriptive analysis, factor analysis and regression analysis. Both logistic and multiple regression were conducted in this research. The third part of the research is concerned with the analysis of empirical results presented in four chapters. Chapter 7 deals with a small scale content analysis on travel agents’ websites to measure the evolution of services provided on these sites over a period of two years. Chapter 8 includes details of the qualitative work conducted in this research which consisted of 12 in-depth interviews with travel agents in Egypt and provided a basis for triangulating the findings from the quantitative analysis. Chapter 9 includes the descriptive analysis of the data as well as the reliability and validity tests on the measurement instrument. Chapter 10 presents the findings and the interpretations of the hypotheses testing. The contribution of this research is a synthesis of Roger’s innovation adoption model with the Resource-based View of the firm (RBV) to produce a revised conceptualisation for the adoption of innovations which is empirically tested for developing country SMEs in the context of tourism in Egypt. The key findings of this research are that management factors are important for the initial adoption decision by firms whereas marketing capabilities are important for more sophisticated adoption. As for perceived innovation attributes, relative advantage and complexity were found important for the initial adoption decision whereas perceived risk was found important for more sophisticated adoptions. This suggests that different factors affect the different levels of adoption. The main contributions of this research to theory are: first,-innovation attributes are not the whole story when studying firms’ adoption of the web, firm resources also affect firms’ adoption decision. Second,-different factors affect different levels of adoption thus when studying innovation adoption by firms, it is important to consider the adoption process as a continuous process that consists of different levels rather than a dichotomous process of adopt vs. non-adopt. The main contribution at the context level is that this is the first research to be conducted in Egypt which represents an important extension to the Web adoption studies that focused largely on developed countries. Additionally, the results of this research can be transferable to countries that share similarities with Egypt and may also be of relevance to SMEs in other sectors in Egypt as will be explained later.

This study is set within the context of the tourism and hospitality sector in Egypt, a popular and expanding tourism destination in the Middle East/North Africa. The study specifically investigates the impact of culture on expectations and perceptions of service quality in hotels. In the literature it has been pointed out that there is a shortage of studies focusing on the impact of culture on service quality. What research has been done generally indicates that expectations of service quality by an individual may vary according to whether that person is from a high or low power distance, and whether from a high context or low context, cultural background. With increasing competition in the hospitality sector service quality could be an important factor in gaining competitive advantage, and understanding cultural differences and can be helpful in dealing with customers from different backgrounds. Following a positivistic methodology and quantitative methods, an adapted version of the SERVQUAL questionnaire was administered to Arab and British hotel guests in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Consequently 504 correctly completed copies were analysed using hypotheses testing and correlation analysis. To the five dimensions of SERVQUAL- tangibles, empathy, responsiveness, assurance and reliability-a sixth dimension of sustainability was also added. This was a novel idea. The findings showed that Arabs had, overall, lower expectations and perceptions of service quality than the British guests. This showed that there is a relationship between expectations of service quality and culture but that the finding could not be explained in terms of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as the literature review generally suggests. Follow up interviews with hotel guests showed that the lower expectations of Arabs in general and Egyptians in particular, could be the result of their beliefs that Westerners are always treated better than Arabs by the hotel staff. The findings also show that environmentally friendly practices by hotels can be added as a dimension to SERVQUAL in respect of the hospitality sector.

SMEs are often described as slow adopters of technology. However, adopting e-commerce is one of many strategies taken by travel agents to re-intermediate themselves in the global travel market against the threat of disintermediation. Exploratory studies have revealed that Egyptian travel agents are laggards when it comes to technology adoption, although they perceive e-commerce as a beneficial tool that can increase their chances of survival. As many as 59.2% of Egyptian travel agents were found not to have websites (Egyptian Travel Agents Association, 2008), this study investigates the factors affecting e-commerce adoption by travel agents. Past literature has shown that there are three main factors affecting the adoption of e-commerce by SMEs. Environmental pressures push SMEs to adopt in order to bolster their survival chances. The benefits of adoption are critical factors considered by managers when making the adoption decision. Finally, there are barriers to e-commerce adoption. By modifying the technology acceptance model, this research conceptualizes the causal relationships amongst these three types of factors. The benefits and barriers to e-commerce adoption are found to mediate the relationship between environmental pressures and e-commerce adoption. This study employs mixed methods starting with a quantitative survey and following it up with qualitative interviews. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 411 adopter and non-adopter e-commerce travel agents. Later, 22 interviews were conducted with the managers of travel agents. Structural equation modelling produced findings reveal that environmental pressures significantly affect the perceived benefits of and barriers to adoption, in addition to having an indirect effect on adoption behaviour. This study contributes to theory as it responds to the claim that the factors affecting e-commerce adoption have not been well documented in the travel sector (Hung et al., 2011, Thomas et al., 2011), especially in the context of developing countries (Thulani et al., 2010). The findings reveal that the modified technology acceptance model successfully interprets e-commerce adoption. The study compares other adoption models with the research model and provides statistical criteria for this comparison. Its contribution to practice is twofold, affecting the managers of travel agencies and policy makers. Recognizing the factors affecting adoption would enable managers to devise strategies and prepare better agendas for expanding their businesses, while at the same time identifying any defects and training needs that present barriers. Meanwhile, recognizing the barriers to adoption could encourage government bodies and policy makers to implement appropriate measures, such as introducing protective and financial legislation to encourage SMEs to adopt technology, or to formulate national policies and initiatives aimed specifically at supporting the adoption of e-commerce by SMEs.

Belly dance is popularly practised in the West, and every year, thousands of enthusiasts and professionals from around the world travel to attend belly dance festivals in Egypt, which is considered the cultural centre of the dance. This bachelor’s thesis examines the discourses produced by Western or ʽwhiteʼ belly dancers from Sweden and Finland, on the topics of tourism in Egypt and belly dance festivals in Egypt. The texts are analysed using James Paul Gee's discourse analytical framework, combined with postcolonial theory, complemented with an intersectional approach. From the postcolonial and feminist perspectives, belly dance discourse in the West and tourism discourse are problematic, as they perpetuate Orientalist tropes and unequal global power structures, which build on colonial discourse. It is hoped that by identifying and questioning these aspects of discourse that are problematic in terms of equity, this study will make a small contribution towards mitigating its adverse effects, and towards social change.

ORCID for Mavis Hooi : 0000-0002-0049-1095

Research on existing actor-networks has focused traditionally on outcomes, achievements and success at the expense of a detailed consideration of their formation and ability to function. In recognition of this lacuna, this study examined the formation and functioning of tourism-related actor-networks involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism in the coastal city of Hurghada, Egypt. More specifically, it applied the actor-network theory (ANT). In particular, the study applied its four moments of translation – problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization – and used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyse the influencing factors, whether positively or negatively, and the degree to which the creation and operations of such collaborations were successful. This study employed a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods design, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 510 employees of tourism-related organizations involved in managing tourism’s environmental impacts on Hurghada. Also, the researcher conducted fourteen semi-structured interviews with the managers and assistant managers of tourism-related organizations involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism. The SEM’s findings revealed the existence of a number of tourism-related actor-networks which were attempting to safeguard local community livelihoods through environmental protection, and of four key factors – trust, coordination, commitment, and communication – which were damaging their formation, functioning and outcomes. This study contributed to theory since it enhanced our knowledge and understanding of the relationships between four previously unconnected bodies of literature. These were, namely, ANT, tourism-related organizations, environmental governance, collaboration, and environmental protection. The study highlighted, also, the factors, both positive and negative, which influenced the formation and functioning of tourism actor-networks involved in managing tourism’s environmental impacts on Hurghada. In practical terms, this study analysed the role of tourism-related organizations in order to identify their main strengths and weaknesses In addition, the researcher considered how partnership networks could consolidate the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of the tourism-related organizations involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism in Hurghada. Also, this study will help these tourism-related organizations, through such networks, to adopt suitable activities, policies, strategies and laws for protecting the assets relating to the local community’s livelihoods. Therefore, knowing the key success factors of collaborative networks and good governance will help these networks of tourism-related organizations to improve their performance in terms of assisting Hurghada’s local community and the poor people in particular.

This thesis is an ethnography of the global belly dance community with particular reference to the transmission of dance paradigms from Cairo to the international dance community. Key words describing my topic include dance, gender, performance, group dynamics, social norms and resistance, public vs. private, tourism, and globalisation. I hypothesize that social dancing is used in many parts of the world as a space outside ordinary life in which to demonstrate compliance with or to challenge prevailing social paradigms. The examination of dance as a globalised unit of cultural capital is an emerging field. With this in mind I investigate the way this dance is employed in professional, semi-professional, and non-professional settings in Egypt and in other parts of the world, notably North America and Europe. Techniques included interviewing members of the international dance community who engage in dance tourism, travelling from their homes to Egypt or other destinations in order to take dance classes, get costumes, or in other ways seek to have an 'authentic' dance experience. I also explored connections dancers fostered with other members of the dance community both locally and in geographically distant locations by using online blogs, websites, listservs and social networking sites. I conducted the first part of my fieldwork in Cairo following this with fieldwork in belly dance communities in the United States and Britain.

The concept of ‘customer experience’ has evolved as an imperative area of study within the marketing discipline. Despite its importance and the positive attention this concept has received during the last few years, the explanation of customer experiences have remained vague and lack a thorough theoretical foundation. Furthermore, practitioners across many industries claim that there is a connection between customer experience and loyalty, yet there is a paucity of research to validate this theoretical assumption. This study aims to address this gap in the literature and to facilitate better understanding of the concept of 'customer experience' and its antecedents and focus on brand loyalty as consequence from the consumer perspective. Accordingly, a mixed-method research design was adopted that consisted of two phases. The first phase involved a netnography study to gain better understanding of the notion of customer experience and refine a conceptual framework that has been developed on the basis of the existing literature. In the second phase this framework was tested by means of a survey of British customers to examine their experience with resort-hotel brands in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the survey responses. The structural model showed a very good fit to the data and good convergent, nomological and discriminant validity and reliability stability. The findings of this study identified four aspects of customer experience in the resort-hotels in Egypt; i.e. educational, aesthetics, relational and novelty. Those aspects are congruent with prior work in the tourism literature. Additionally, the study found that customers rely on some service cues such as: price, core service and WOM to predict and assess their experiences. The findings also indicated that perceived service quality has a mediating role in the relationship between customer-contact employees and core service and customer experience. A key contribution of this research is offering a robust model that explains the nascent phenomenon of customer experience and demonstrating that experience has a definite positive impact on brand loyalty. The use of netnography to identify customer experience dimension is also considered as a methodological contribution in the area of marketing research. Moreover, the present study adds novel perspective to the growing body of brand literature (particularly service brand) and suggests directions for future research. Finally, the study provides managerial implications for service managers to identify the experiential needs of their customer and properly design the customer experience.

In recent decades, coastal tourism has grown significantly bringing enormous economic benefits to host communities, and causing many environmental and social impacts to the coastal environment. Beach resort development faces problems due to an inability on the part of stakeholders to make sound decisions about sustainable design due, in part, to the complexity of the sustainability issues and the lack of a comprehensive decision-making tool to assist them. In Egypt, design and planning regulations have not changed for decades, resulting in non-sustainable beach resort development. This study provides a "decision framework," a conceptual "Sustainable Design Model," which shifts the focus of stakeholders from the application of traditional physical carrying capacity procedures to a comprehensive approach linking sustainability indicators and carrying capacities. This approach includes an array of acceptable capacities based on the ecological, social, psychological, physical, economic, and managerial capacity thresholds of a site. This framework assists stakeholders in making rational decisions about what is to be built, where it is located, and how to build it. To test the model, a survey was conducted at 10 beach resort destinations (5 American, 5 Egyptian) to measure the difference in perceptions between stakeholders concerning sustainability indicators and carrying capacities. The instrument was determined valid and reliable using a test/retest procedure. A total of 276 responses were obtained for data analysis. Statistical analyses included frequency distribution, t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), factor analysis, and a stepwise multiple regression analysis. Sample demographic information was also collected. Results revealed a strong link between sustainability indicators and carrying capacity thresholds. While both Egyptian and American respondents recognized the importance of sensitive environmental developments, there were significant differences due to differences in culture, environment, regulations, and priorities. The American sample placed greater importance on the ecological indicators, while the Egyptian sample placed greater importance on the social, psychological, and managerial indicators. The American sample conveyed a positive attitude toward government regulations, design, and management efforts to incorporate sustainability principles into the built environment, while the Egyptian respondents conveyed a more negative attitude. As a result of this study, future Egyptian policy may be better informed of the gap between the theoretical concepts of sustainability and real world coastal development implementation.
Ph. D.

The British invasion and occupation of Egypt in 1882 has long been a subject of interest for British Empire and Middle Eastern historians. This action by the Gladstone government is considered central to any discussion of the British in the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, its causes and major personalities have been examined in detail and discussed at length. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922), however, has generally been overlooked, ignored, or dismissed as inconsequential by historians of these events. While words like "naive," "gadfly," "romantic" and other less charitable terms have been used by historians and others to characterize him, it is the contention of this paper that Blunt's attempts to mediate the crisis did have an impact on the course of events. Moreover, recent research, in particular that of Alexander Scholch in his Egypt for the Egyptians! The Socio-Political Crisis in Egypt 1878-82 , has shown that Blunt's The Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt: Being a Personal Narrative of Events is a generally reliable and accurate resource concerning what took place in Cairo and London in 1882. Furthermore, Blunt was the victim of a government coverup aided and abetted by a jingoist London press at the time. Thus, his cause was considered treasonous in some quarters and his integrity questioned. The subsequent publication of the memoirs of others involved in the events supported the government's story (and their own involvement) only added to the negative perception of Blunt. As a result, his attempts to bring about a peaceful resolution of the Egyptian crisis in 1882 have generally been ignored by historians and Blunt considered to be of little consequence in the outcome of the entire episode. This paper will show that this attitude towards Blunt is unwarranted and unjustified. Furthermore, his attempts to mediate the crisis were a factor in the British invasion and occupation of Egypt. Finally, it will show that omission of Blunt and his activities, as well as his Secret History as a source, in any discussion of the British invasion and occupation of Egypt in 1882 makes that work incomplete.

This thesis examines issues of intimacy, emotion and love in relationships that Tarablin Bedouins make with each other, as well as with tourists who come to the Sinai. Its analysis is qualitative its method is participant observation and involvement and its perspective is gendered, situated among women in a sexually segregated society. It considers ethnographic as well as Bedouin concepts and categories of love. Using several stories, it analyzes sexual development and the gendered nature of knowledge. It considers the invisibility of the female in theories of honour and shame which conventionally frame our understanding of Arab social structure, and compares this perspective with the Tarablin practice of invisibility. It looks at boundaries of social space between Bedouins and foreigners, and between men and women.

Le tourisme international a généré en 2006 en Egypte plus de 7 milliards de dollars et créé des millions d’emplois. Emblématique de l’ouverture économique, ce secteur est placé au cœur des programmes de réformes engagés par l’Etat égyptien depuis quinze ans, avec le soutien des agences internationales de développement. La croissance soutenue de ce secteur – malgré une géopolitique régionale instable, a largement redéfini la carte des territoires utiles du pays, faisant des espaces touristiques des zones exclusives de production économique où se jouent les rapports entre l’Etat égyptien, le secteur privé et les bailleurs internationaux. La région de Louxor, étape incontournable du voyage en Orient, est un territoire pionnier du tourisme international au XIXè siècle. Patrimonialisation et touristification sont à la genèse et la raison d’être de cette région. Les deux processus impliquent des politiques d’aménagement souvent divergentes et concurrentes, qui se heurtent, parfois violemment, aux populations locales. Leur histoire et leurs compétences, largement niées par les autorités centrales, participent de et à l’exploitation touristique et archéologique des monuments. Nous explorons, dans une tentative de conciliation entre une politologie « par le haut » et l’observation « par le bas », ce lieu d’une Nation égyptienne construite par et pour le regard de l’Autre. Controversé, disputé et convoité depuis plus d’un siècle jusqu’à nos jours, il nous donne à lire et à analyser les tensions et les enjeux politiques, économiques et sociaux qui travaillent, bien au-delà du secteur touristique et de la région, les relations entre Etat et sociétés locales en Egypte
International tourism in Egypt generated in 2006 more than 7 billions dollars and few millions jobs. As a symbol of economic openness, the sector is strategic for the reform programmes that the Egyptian government has initiated from the nineties onwards, with the financial backing of international development agencies. The sustained growth of tourism – despite the regional turbulences, has re-defined the map of the “useful” territories, as tourism created exclusive enclaves of economic production where the state agencies, the private sector and the international donors play a major role. Luxor was an essential stop on the Grand Tour in Orient in the 19th century and a pioneer destination in the international tourism history. The region is the outcome of two long-term, intertwined but differing processes, heritage manufacturing and tourism management, which met, sometimes with violence, resistance from the local populations. Their history and their competences, which are generally denied by the central authorities, originated and have developed with tourism and archaeology. Combining bottom-up and top-down approaches, we are exploring the political economy of a disputed, highly-coveted and controversial heritage site located in Upper Egypt. Luxor is highly emblematic of a Nation which was manufactured for and by the tourist gaze. We read and analyze social, political and economic tensions and the discrepancies of representations which have shaped, beyond the region and the tourism sector, the relationships between local societies and the State in Egypt

En 1869, Thomas Cook arrivait en Égypte avec un groupe de 32 touristes. Depuis plus de 2000 ans l'Égypte, ses monuments et sa civilisation pharaonique disparue, attiraient les visiteurs. Au cours des 20 années qui suivirent l'inauguration du canal de Suez et ce premier voyage organisé, la compagnie Thomas Cook & Son allait bâtir une infrastructure complète : hôtels, bateaux à vapeur, guides et agences, qui firent de l'Égypte l'une des principales destinations touristiques de la fin du XIXe siècle. Cependant, l'activité de Thomas Cook & Son ne s'est pas limitée au tourisme : entre 1882 et 1886, la compagnie se montra un auxiliaire zélé de la Grande-Bretagne en participant à la constitution d'un protectorat de fait. En particulier, les vapeurs et l'organisation mise en place ont servi au transport des troupes et du matériel nécessaires à l'expédition de 1884-1885 au Soudan, lors de la révolte Mahadiste. Au cours de la dernière décennie du XIXe siècle, aucun concurrent n'a pu rattraper l'avantage commercial acquis par la firme qui avait pourtant perdu le monopole dont elle bénéficiait. Elle développa et diversifia ses activités, dont les retombées économiques furent sensibles dans toute la vallée du Nil. En 1900, Thomas Cook & Son était la plus importante entreprise commerciale du pays. En introduisant le tourisme en Égypte, Thomas Cook a contribué à donner à ce pays son visage moderne
In 1869 Thomas Cook arrived in Egypt with a group of 32 tourists. For 2,000 years Egypt and its monuments had attracted visitors. During the 20 years that followed the opening of the Suez Canal and that first organized tour, Thomas Cook & Son built hotels and agencies and organized steam boat services on the Nile. By the end of the 19th century they had turned Egypt into a major tourist destination. But the company's activities were not confined to tourism: between 1882 and 1886 it was involved in the setting up of the British military occupation. Most significantly the steamers and logistics set up in the Nile valley were used to convey the troops and stores of the 1884-85 Anglo-Egyptian Nile expedition to the Sudan. In the last decade of the 19th century the company continued to develop and diversify its activities, thus ensuring for itself a lastingly dominant position in Egypt. The economic benefits of this were felt all along the Nile valley. Despite the loss of its monopoly, none of its competitors were able to catch up with it. By introducing tourism into Egypt Thomas Cook was, in no small way, a modernizing force

Dans le domaine de l'aménagement en Egypte, le concept d'aménagement du paysage est absent. Les schémas sectoriels sont les outils les plus utilisés, où à chaque secteur du littoral on fixe des critères et des objectifs précis. L'approche économique est devenue ainsi la base de nombre de projets urbains et touristiques en particulier dans les zones littorales. Or l'aménagement du paysage du littoral s'appuie sur plusieurs visions: esthétique, scientifique et fonctionnelle. Après avoir bien précisé l'objectif à atteindre, il est nécessaire de s'appuyer sur de multiples approches physiques, écologiques sociales et économiques. Le paysage du littoral de la mer Rouge, a longtemps subi des préjudices et des dégradations notamment au moment de l'essor de l'industrie pétrolière, ou encore du récent développement touristique. La qualité écologique des milieux urbanisés s'est dégradée, celle des espaces maritimes et intérieurs aussi. Ces dernières années, la bande littorale a souffert d'un bouleversement de son écosystème. Les villes et les stations se sont développées séparément, sans liens économiques ou urbanistiques. Contrairement aux villes et leurs populations, le tourisme bénéficie d'une grande attention. La plupart des zones touristiques ont des relations régionales avec le Caire ou la Haute Egypte plus qu'avec les villes du littoral. Relier les stations aux villes devrait être un objectif crucial dans l'aménagement du paysage. Cette intégration demande une grande mutation dans l'écologie urbaine des villes du littoral pour s'adapter aux activités touristiques. Tous les projets touristiques du littoral de la mer Rouge ont les mêmes caractéristiques, il n'y a pas de diversité au niveau des prestations proposées aux touristes. La rapidité du développement des infrastructures nécessaires pour accueillir l'activité touristique sur le secteur d'Al Ghardaqa-Safaga a réduit la surface des zones naturelles. L'affluence touristique a récemment diminué sur le littoral, et l'offre excède la demande, en raison à la fois de la conjoncture internationale mais aussi de la dégradation de l'environnement
In Egypt, in the domain of the regional and urban planning, the concept of the landscape planning does not exist. The sectorial plans are the tools the most used where one decides on criteria and the precise objectives to apply to every sector of the coastline. The economic approach has become so the basis of an important number of the urban and tourist projects in particular for the coastal areas. But the landscape planning of the coastline relies on several aspects aesthetic, scientific and functional. Once the objective well specified it is necessary to use several social, economic, physical and ecological approaches. The Red Sea coast landscape suffered damage and deterioration for a long period of time notably the time of the oil industry development and moreover the period of the recent tourist development. The ecological quality of the urban zones deteriorated and it was the same for the maritime and interior zones. These recent years, the coastline suffered a disruption of its ecosystem. Cities and tourist villages developed separately, without economic or urbanistic links. Contrary to cities and their populations the tourism benefits by a great attention. The majority of the tourist zones have same relationships with Cairo or with the High Egypt more than with the other cities of the coast. Connecting together tourist villages with cities should be a crucial objective in the lands cape planning. This integration asks for massive changes in the urban ecology of the cities on the coast in order to adapt to the tourist activities. All tourist projects of the Red Sea coast have the same features. There is no diversity at the level of the benefits proposed to the tourists. The speed of the infrastructure development, so necessary in order to welcome the tourist activity in Al Ghardaqa-Safaga surroundings, reduced the natural zone surface. Lately, the tourist throng on the coastline decreased, and the offer exceeds the demand because both of international circumstances and the deterioration of the environment

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 345-366). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR29525

An integrated framework is created to assess national-level tourism plans and is applied to the Egyptian case. To date, the assessment of tourism planning has been a tedious, expensive process and detailed evaluations have not often been undertaken in a systematic manner. It is argued that much can be learned about tourism planning by examining tourism planning documents systematically according to a set of criteria. Although plans differ depending on their contexts, there are certain attributes that should be present in all tourism plans. In this dissertation a set of characteristics is delineated that should be present in national-level tourism plans. The proposed assessment framework is divided into four major components: goals and objectives, approach to tourism planning, institutional elements, and marketing. Each component is then further divided into key points drawn from pertinent literatures that suggest the characteristics of a good plan and, therefore, what should be assessed in plan evaluation. The framework is then applied to the Egyptian tourism plan to guide an examination and assessment of the documents. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made to improve Egyptian tourism planning. This research contributes to tourism planning by suggesting a framework that can be employed with relative ease to assess tourism plans for different national-level destinations, thus facilitating problem and issue identification, offering an opportunity for learning, and providing a structure for undertaking comparative studies.

Tourism has become one of Egypt’s main sources of income and has undergone rapid privatization and subsequent growth. This has resulted in numerous policy and implementation gaps including those in environmental policy. Egypt’s natural resources are thus threatened by this unsustainable tourism growth. This study analyses the impact of the tourism privatization movement in Egypt on the distribution of environmental responsibility between the private and public sectors and the environmental consequences. Changes in the roles of the private and public sectors in tourism and other roles, priorities, and agendas that each stakeholder may have are considered in this thesis. In order to gather information for this study, Egyptian laws and legislations pertaining to the areas of the environment, tourism and investment were examined. Secondary data from government sources about tourist numbers and characteristics, and about investment trends in Egypt were also obtained and examined. A series of interviews of key informants from the public sector, private sector, and NGOs were also conducted in the Egyptian capital city, Cairo, and on the Red Sea. Two Red Sea cities, Hurghada and El Gouna were visited and environmental initiatives in them were observed and made note of. This study finds that the Egyptian private sector is more successful than the public sector at planning and managing environmental initiatives, and that Egypt’s tourism pricing policy is a key influence on the level of environmental degradation. In terms of laws and regulations, it was found that Egypt has a sufficient number of environmental regulations and institutions; but that the challenge lies in their functioning and efficiency, and that the government’s environmental initiatives are largely symbolic and designed to attract foreign aid. These findings suggest that Egypt should focus on improving the quality rather than increasing the quantity of tourism. Accordingly, the marketing competitive advantage should be the quality and uniqueness of the destination rather than its low price. In terms of private-public sector interactions, governmental institutions should assume a more active role in environmental protection and should employ experts and knowledgeable professionals as decision makers, while the private sector should be encouraged to undertake large-scale tourism projects. It is found that sustainable tourism cannot be achieved without the contribution and collaboration of both parties in tourism planning and development.

碩士
康寧大學
休閒管理研究所
100
The experiencing value of visitors for world heritage tours was studied. The recreational market has grown exponentially in Taiwan. Believing in that thousands of miles traveled are better than thousands of books read, there are wide ranges of selections on the popular sight-seeing spots around the world to one’s amazement; for example, “Great Pyramids” and the “Temple of Abu Simbel” located in Egypt, which is one of the World Heritage in the northern Africa, to be allured by people who are in-depth travelers, prefer to have seen once personally than only by hearing in hundred times, and would like to personally go to the places for witnessing the intricacies as well as revealing their mysterious covers. Field survey was conducted in Egypt, with depth interviews on the tourists who actually make visits to the research locations, to make analysis on the correlations between experiencing values and leisure and recreation. Hopefully, the purpose will be beneficial to travelers for them to analyze their own values on travelling, instead to make travelling consumptions by bandwagon effects, and at the same time, to bring attention on the related units for emphasis on tourist experiencing, in order to pour into the leisure travelling with more diverse as well as abundant vivacity. For the experiencing value of efficiency, although the reactions seen from the practical sides such as finance, time and sensual feelings are the shortcut to find out most quickly on “efficiency”, what the tourists would like to achieve not only just the exchange of money for a quick experiencing, but during the process of in-person visit, either if to encounter good or bad circumstances, or if to gain tangible or intangible rewards, there are also incorporations between how one’s body senses and how one actually feels inside. For the experiencing value of aesthetics, to produce experiencing of inward emotions from the actual environment and generation of ambience, allowing one to have innermost understandings due of personal sentiments and opinions, able to reflect on one’s attitudes and performances later in life, sometime to show one’s emotions out of reflex, or even to be reinforced dominantly on the way of how one gets along with others. For the experiencing value of excellence, both excellent expertise in leadership and reinforcement on the social potential of individual, can all strengthen social superiority on the interactions with people. Finally, on the aspect of escaping from reality, for example, relief of work pressures, diversion from ordinary schedules both routine and mechanical, enhancement of knowledge and enjoyment of amusements, and recharging once again from the living inspirations. Thus, the experiencing values of the four major constructs are not divided in separation, instead to be beneficiary connection of complement among one another.