Dubai The increased number of tourists coming to the UAE has put pressure on the natural environment and the ministry of Environment and Water is calling for ‘eco tourism’ to be adopted.
To cement this, Dr Rashid Bin Fahd, Minister of Environment and Water announced the launch of a Dubai International Conference on Eco Tourism which is being organized by the Zayed International Prize for the Environment and will be held for the first time in April 2011.
The conference will highlight issues related to environmental sustainability of tourism.
“The Eco-tourism industry is among the fastest growing industries in the world, and plays an important role in the development and growth of the industry,” said Bin Fahd. Tourism, and specifically eco tourism is a boost to the national economy, and has many social and cultural benefits, he added.
“With the increasing concern for the environment in the last third of the twentieth century, and to recognize the negative effects associated with the tourism industry in some areas, particularly in protected areas or areas of critical or environmentally sensitive areas that are habitat for some rare forms of biodiversity, there has been interest in the concept of eco-tourism,” Bin Fahd said in his address.
The number of tourists is expected to grow in the coming years, with an increase in the pressure on environmental resources in the UAE.
“There are real possibilities in the marine environments and the desert, and we must work to identify the environmental vocabulary in each environment and the possibility of promotion and how to provide for tourists,” he said.
