Egypt creates protected tourism zone on Red Sea coast

Egypt on Monday created an ecologically protected tourism zone at Marsa Alam, on the western shores of the Red Sea, the Egyptian news agency MENA reported.
The zone, which lies more than 500 kilometres (more than 300 miles) south of Cairo, was inaugurated by Tourism Minister Mamduh al-Beltagui in a ceremony attended by several Western ambassadors, MENA said.
The minister said Egypt was working on a "plan to develop ecological tourism along the Red Sea" and announced that an international conference on sustainable tourism would soon be held in the southern town of Aswan.
The zone is the third of its kind to be created in Egypt in recent years. The previous ones are the Siwa oasis in the western desert close to the border with Libya, and the southern Sinai peninsula on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba.