The story of the founding of El Gouna ‘The man, the vision, El Gouna', has been told and retold (see accompanying feature) in tones that inspire a reverence for the man normally reserved for iron-fisted political figures. But this image doesn’t match the man often seen strolling around El Gouna in khakis and a polo shirt, a hand thrust casually into a pocket, with a relaxed, inviting expression. Red carpets are not rolled out when he’s among neighbours and friends in El Gouna, and perhaps that’s one of the reasons he spends as much time as possible in his home there when his business allows.

While he doesn’t hide from the media, he’s no publicity hound either, and now that El Gouna has an identity of its own, the Sawiris name seems to be receding into the background in the myriad of El Gouna brochures and publications. But he is still very much involved in planning the future of El Gouna, and one word from him can breathe life in or spell death to a project there. In an interview with H2O, the man behind El Gouna shares his vision and strategy for the little resort town, and reveals that contrary to popular lore, his original vision for El Gouna was on a far more humble scale.

H2O: Describe El Gouna in your own words.

Samih: To me, El Gouna is a little town in the making, a town that specifically must not become your typical tourist town, Egyptian town, or even European town.

Samih: What sets it apart is mainly that we do not consider all development from the point of view of tourists, or the point of view of real estate buyers, but rather predominantly from the three groups of people that are equally, and I stress equally, important to us.

These are residents who live here permanently, the tourists, and the investors who buy for leisure or investment or both.

Ask the people what that does for the atmosphere here. They will all share positive and negative insights and have different requirements and experiences.
Tourists might say not enough lively night places, while residents might say thank God there are limited noisy night outlets.
But we have to have compromise so that all three groups can coexist happily.

H2O: Your marketing focuses a lot on the "European" elements in El Gouna. What unique Egyptian elements does El Gouna offer?

Samih: Besides the nearby Bedouin encampment, the only Egyptian aspects are the people, and of course the local architecture.
I would have liked to have seen more local Egyptians living here. But there was no existing village already here with existing traditions that developed into El Gouna. We didn’t have an existing culture or historical community.

H2O: Wasn’t the original plan to house the workers near the town center in the basic apartments to give the town a kind of Egyptian base? What happened to that idea?

Sawiris: The plan to have workers integrated into the town and life was modified to avoid imposing too much of a lifestyle change for the workers, who come from traditional village-like backgrounds.

There is a school for the children, as well as the hotel school that provides vocational training to the entire community, including the relatives and friends of the existing workers. We are currently building a kind of social club, a church, and another prayer area since the mosque in El Gouna is not very near to El Bustan.

H2O: How much will you let El Gouna grow? What is the maximum average population you envision to make an ideal lively town?

Sawiris: This is the one million dollar question. I can only tell you I have consistently underestimated the number of people it takes to make a town alive and not too crowded.
I started with two hotels and a small downtown area and thought that would be sufficient.
Ten hotels later, we are still growing. But I will press the stop button as soon as I feel there is enough.

I feel no pressure to continue to grow beyond that point where I feel it is big enough, because we (Orascom Touristic Development) have a lot of other areas where we have started similar projects – Taba, Emirates, Jordan, Fayoum… All these are areas where we have tons of land and we can develop and grow there.
This (overdevelopment of one project) is what drives other developments into ruin: they have only that one venue to make money, so they push it and push it until it doesn’t work anymore.

H2O: Do you have plans to welcome or build other industries in El Gouna besides the tourism industry?

Sawiris: Absolutely. Any kind of environmentally suitable industry is welcome. Our farming activities are growing: we have more than 90 acres planted, and more than 5000 animals, from ducks to sheep.

They make up a small industry for the purpose of taking the town out of the mono-tourism culture that is devastating to the image and quality of a town.

One of the things that one learns from history is that not one of these towns that grew around a single industry or factory ever succeeded as a town that was a nice place to live. We are doing our best to stay away from that.

H2O: "Green Gouna" is on its way to promoting El Gouna as an "eco-tourism" destination. What is your definition of Eco-Tourism, and what are the benefits for El Gouna going green?

Sawiris: I have no definition of eco-tourism, but I know one thing, living with the environment in a way that you do not cause it to suffer by your being there, and promoting the compromise between using natural resources and maintaining them, is a winner.

As such, I will promote anything that is a compromise between taking a shortcut by doing things the cheap way at the price of damaging the environment, and not doing anything at all, like keeping things completely untouched and undeveloped like fanatical environmentalists insist.

I am of the opinion that wherever there are people, there is pressure on the environment. The duty of people that have a big piece of land, like ourselves (Orascom), is to minimize the impact of their being there.

A lot of people, especially in Europe, share this opinion, and if they can find a place in Egypt that promotes this style and attitude, then El Gouna will benefit.

There is a growing number of Europeans and people all over the world who identify with places where good practices underlie the way a place is developed and maintained.

H2O: At times, the town center and Marina areas can feel like ghost towns, especially during low seasons. How is management breathing life into them these days?

Sawiris: What has been breathing life into the place is the growing number of residents coupled with the higher occupancy of hotels and growing number of day visitors from Hurghada. Now that the rates in hotels have gone up, the kind of tourists we are attracting have money to spend outside of the hotels.

The town is picking up because people are venturing out of their hotels, and we need to encourage this.

H2O: What, if anything, is still missing from the town to make it fit your ideal vision?

Sawiris: One thing that is definitely missing but we will make happen by the end of the year is a better playground for the children.
The current playground in El Gouna is unacceptable compared to the other things. We will make that happen.

H2O: If you could start El Gouna all over again, is there anything you would have done differently?

Sawiris: The good thing about El Gouna is I never knew it was going in the direction of becoming a town.
It would have been crazy to have gone to El Gouna 10 years ago and thought about building a town. It happened step by step so I never thought about a bigger vision all at once. I doubt if I could think about changing it.

H2O: How much time do you and/or your family spend on average in El Gouna?

Sawiris: If I am in Egypt, there will not be a weekend that I will spend anywhere else but El Gouna.
I stretch my weekends to begin Thursday afternoon.

Then one day, when everyone was busy constructing more villas, more hotels, more lagoons and trying to keep their businesses alive, the town that seemed dangerously on the edge of disappearing under a shiny façade suddenly sprouted a personality. Existential angst gave way to optimism as those who thought they were running away from it all started reality anew when confronted with the beauty bursting with potential surrounding them. El Gouna had stepped out—a debutown for discerning tastes only.

Today, it seems that everyone wants a piece of paradise and the proud developers of El Gouna (Orascom Projects and Touristic Development-OPTD) can hardly keep up with demand. Long-time visitors and early home owners are starting to assert their wisdom born of experience with sagas of “I remember when…there was no marina here… Club Med was the Paradisio… the museum was over here... there were no tok-toks… the hotels were at 20% occupancy…”. Dusty bottles of vodka produced by the short-lived El Gouna Beverage Company sit on shelves as collectors’ items. For a town that should be in its infancy, El Gouna has a surprisingly rich history, its hyperevolution perhaps only rivalled by Dubai.

In development megaprojects, size does matter, and in unstable markets where agility counts, smaller is better. The secret to El Gouna’s success may lie in its complete ability to adapt and control the pace and the direction of development based on external metaforces and individual preferences. As founder Samih Sawiris of OPTD puts it (see accompanying interview), “I will press the stop button as soon as I feel there is enough.”

In the Beginning…
There were 10 kilometers of unspoiled desert coastline with a backdrop of rugged mountains that glowed red in the twilight. Sparkling turquoise waters mirroring clear blue skies enchanted a man looking for a beautiful place on the coast to relax with his family. His name was Samih Sawiris, incontrovertibly one of Egypt’s most successful businessmen. He built a villa and a jetty and was ready to call it a day. He had his piece of paradise. When his friends saw his treasure, they wanted in, and he soon found his company building a few more villas here, another jetty there, and even a hotel or two. He may have been content to leave it at that, but development companies being what they are, his company smelled success and embarked upon a strategy of growth that led to two town centers plus a full-service marina and housing options from one-bedroom apartments to luxury villas alongside tourist accommodation in boutique-like hotels and five-star resorts.

And what modern town would be complete without its own internet service provider, local and regional transportation networks, private radio and TV stations, private airport, and finally a hospital and school, both accredited and operated according to international standards? Don’t forget the cobblestone roads, network of lagoons, array of restaurants and coffeeshops and virtually every sporting activity possible under the sun, sea or stars. Lounging on one of the many beaches remains a favourite pastime, but there is no shortage of activities for people of every age , from golfing on the world-class golf course to diving the spectacular coral reefs and wrecks just off the shores. For the extreme sports enthusiast, kite surfing at Mangroovy Beach.

Voila, El Gouna (The Lagoon) was born.

Today, El Gouna boasts 13 hotels, 60 restaurants, and an eclectic collection of shops, art centers, museums, discos and pubs. To date, there are close to 1500 housing units, from the one-bedroom flat to the luxury villa with a choice of unique architectural styles with distinctive Mediterranean and Egyptian influences.

The Abu Tig Marina has fast become a bustling town center of its own. Several restaurants tucked along its promenade have established themselves as local favourites: Bleu Bleu and 7th Star Bakery have their share of regulars, and Maison Thomas, Le Deuville, and La Scala all have something more going for them than the fact that Tareq Omar Sharif (yes, the son of the Omar Sharif) runs them. Abu Tig Marina has already claimed a fair amount of Red Sea yacht business, with over 100 berths for boats up to 45 meters and full quayside services, including wastewater pump out, high pressure jet washing, and fueling. Plans are in the works to dredge out another area that will be able to accommodate even larger boats.

“We were getting more and more calls from people with longer boats who wanted to dock in El Gouna,” explained Harbour Master Phil Jones. According to Jones, all the paperwork has been filed to transform Abu Tig Marina into a full-fledged port with customs capabilities to make arrangements as easy as possible for their clients. It’s just a matter of time. Meanwhile, the sight of luxury yachts and picturesque Turkish sailing vessels moored in the marina on almost any given day is enough to make even a Buddhist yearn for material things. Or at least a day or two at sea.

Club Med’s choice of El Gouna for its recent return to Egypt’s Red Sea after a 20-year absence represents a significant feather in the cap for El Gouna. “Having Club Med puts you on a different kind of map. It’s the proper next step, and brings international recognition to the place,” commented Tamer El Shendidy, Deputy General Manager of El Gouna. Shendidy, wearing preppy shorts as he sat in his office in downtown El Gouna, boasted between answering a steady stream of phone calls that El Gouna has surpassed the 50% mark of European ownership of real estate. Why is that a good thing? “Our target is to provide services and keep standards at international levels. We need diversified end-users to keep that system in place,” he explained.

Shendidy speaks from a wisdom born of experience. “The biggest set-back in reaching accepted European and international standards was the training required for the local employees,” he said. Employees are recruited primarily from upper Egyptian towns such as Luxor, Qena, and Aswan, and most are of a socio-economic level that would have prohibited them from experiencing five-star hotels and the like. The cultural and aesthetic-not to mention language-norms of an international tourism environment are so vastly different from that of the majority of employees that they might just as well be those of another planet. For the most part, local tourism training schools just weren’t up to the challenge.

Thus, the addition of the German-affiliated (GTZ) tourism vocational school was located in the employee village of El Bustan. The school, opened under the Mubarak-Kohl initiative, is starting its 3rd academic year. Each hotel sponsors a specified number of local students ages 14-18, and provides on-the-job training leading to employment for graduates. “We’re already seeing improvement in service, judging by the guest comment cards,” Shendidy pointed out.
Another foundation stone that just rolled into place is the international accreditation of El Gouna School. Run by Ms. Dagmar Luchmann, a German native who has been living in Egypt for 31 years, this academic year marks the first year that the international section will be fully accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS), which will act as monitoring body to ensure high standards. The school follows the British National Curriculum through to year 12, and is an official examination center that can give the IGCSE (the required exams for college entrance.) All the teachers are fully certified.

Winning this accreditation was no small feat for a school that serves students from 22 nationalities, with a total enrolment of over 400. “We begin by teaching English,” Luchmann explained.

Over at El Gouna Hospital, General Manager Dr. Medhat Milad Salib took a break from a busy week that saw the emergency ward fill up. In his typical loud voice that betrays his years of experience managing what has become known as the area’s most specialized trauma center, he reported that a European patient who had broken both legs earlier that week in a motorcycle accident was now stable and making jokes with the staff. “Most of our important cases are accident cases…neurological problems, head and neck injuries, orthopeadic fractures, electric shocks, cerebral haemorrhages, surgical cases…” he said, adding that they had just acquired two new ambulances to add to their existing fleet of two. “We get calls from as far down as Marsa Alam (4 hours away by car), Qena, and even Sharm (El Sheikh) delivers some of their important cases to us.”

Reassuring to tourists on holiday is a medical service program where visitors pay just nine euros a day for full coverage of any medical problems or emergencies, including use of the decompression chamber, one of the largest in the Middle East that can accommodate up to nine patients at once. Without the deco-chamber, coverage is just three euros a day. But El Gouna Hospital, like most everything else in El Gouna, caters to several uses, and Dr. Medhat has taken pains to provide quality, affordable services to residents, setting up a monthly payment scheme where residents of any nationality can access affordable rates for medical services. Many a baby has been born at El Gouna Hospital. In keeping up with the international trend of medical tourism, El Gouna Hospital now offers advanced plastic surgery as well as state-of-the-art dental and ophthalmology services, providing top quality at much cheaper prices than found even in Eastern Europe, according to Dr. Medhat. What’s next? “An ecodoppler machine, a kind of ultrasonography for heart and blood vessels, and specialized machines to examine ears as well as to aid in certifying people as fit for diving,” stated Dr. Medhat, like a proud parent.

Paradise at What Cost?
While Orascom’s magic touch and deep pockets may make building a town from scratch look simple, there was, of course, much more complex planning involved in turning pristine desert coastline into a world-class multi-purpose live/work/vacation destination. El Gouna is supported by an independent infrastructure of four electrical power plants, water sourced from a well system, as well as water and sewage treatment plants. This raises the question, how sustainable is a fake oasis, and how environmentally friendly is it?

An article in the summer 2004 issue of El Gouna Magazine addresses the issue of water scarcity in the resort, and explained that an extensive assessment of available water resources was just conducted. It found that existing water supplies from underground wells and waste water for landscaping and agriculture supplemented by the Hurghada municipality would not be sufficient to support projected growth. The answer, according to the article, will be found in more desalination, expensive though that is, and developers are also looking at assisting Hurghada with improving their wastewater process. This “good neighbour” action will benefit El Gouna as well as Hurghada.

But even if the depletion of ancient aquifers sucked dry in a matter of decades by Red Sea developments from Ain El Sokhna to Marsa Alam is assigned the badge of a necessary evil and overlooked, just how green can a resort with a fluctuating population in the hundreds of thousands and a golf course in the middle of the desert get? Plenty green, according to a group of concerned citizens who started an an initiative last year called “Green Gouna”.

Her experience running first Zeytouna and then Mangroovy Beach and seeing the dead turtles and mangroves choking in plastic bags led her to take the position of manager of Green Gouna, a position funded by OPTD. Kutlug says the organization has received a lot of support, not just from OPTD, but from several USAID - funded Red Sea environmental projects as well. Most importantly, the hotels, local businesses, and residents have been enthusiastic. “Being environmentally friendly is a tourist attraction,” she said, explaining that Green Gouna has already succeeded in attracting birdwatching tours and organizing tours for students from the ecology departments of several universities.

What are they coming to see? Where to begin… many of the hotels in El Gouna have received top honours from several green hotel associations, year after year, for their conservation efforts. The El Gouna Movenpick and Sheraton Miramar have both received Green Globe awards. Another award was the result of an international poll of guests for their perception of a hotel’s score on the green meter. Tasteful signs in most hotel rooms suggest to visitors that they reuse towels, take shorter showers, and turn off lights and air conditioners when not needed. The Steigenberger has substituted cloth for plastic laundry service bags. Many of the hotels have opted to install key-card systems that automatically shut off electricity to unoccupied rooms.

Rather ironically however, the wastewater recycling system is most efficient with high occupancy rates. When there are not enough guests, there is not enough wastewater to water the landscaping, and supplementary treated wastewater has to be trucked in from Hurghada. Cleaner vehicles such as the two-wheeled “tok-toks” for affordable and fun transportation around town and the open-air electric shuttle buses are other additions that improve the experience of El Gouna as well as its environment. In today’s eco-conscious world, however, these practices have practically become standard.
Meanwhile, back at the fishfarm,
wastewater from the desalination plant is used and ducks from the duck farm provide the filtering system, all in a visitor-friendly environment. Residents get their catch of the day there, and some of the hotels are buying ducks from them. They are still working on getting the fish population high enough to be able to supply the hotels, said Kutlug.

In addition to the fish and duck farms, there is the ostrich farm, olive orchard, jojoba farm, mangrove conservation project, and recycled plastic factory. Significantly, Green Gouna takes its cue from the ecology movement which views people as part of the eco-system and seeks sustainable solutions for human as well as plant, animal, and resource stakeholders in the system. For Green Gouna, this means seeking a way to link Bedouin and local workers’ livelihoods to protection of the environment. The recycled plastic factory is located on the mountain and operated by the Bedouin community there. All garbage is sent to this mountain to be sorted and sent on to the appropriate recycler. Paper usually goes to Cairo, glass goes to Hurghada, and some used cooking oil is sent to Hurghada to be transformed into soap by another project. The Bedouins also grow olive trees and jojoba plants to produce oils which they sell from their camps to the groups of tourists from El Gouna.
The success of any large development relies on a usually hidden labour force of construction workers, maintenance personnel, housecleaners, groundskeepers, truck drivers, etc., From the outset, El Gouna tried to incorporate these workers into the lifeblood of the town. Architect Rami Dahan, a disciple of Hassan Fathy, the Egyptian architect who revolutionized the aesthetic of low-income housing with his book ‘Architecture for the Poor’, designed Kafr El Gouna with housing units intended for the workers. As it turned out, the tension between the cultural norms of the workers and those of the western tourists proved to be too big a strain, and a new village, El Bustan, was set up on the outskirts for the worker community. Somewhat ironically, the abandoned Kafr El Gouna apartments were quickly bought up with starting prices of close to $50,000—well out of the price range for all but a handful of Egyptian workers, making them more like architecture for the rich.
Green Gouna is bringing the workers back into the folds by starting a cultural center where traditional Egyptian crafts will be taught, and participants can sell their folk art to tourists as a way to supplement their income. “Our ultimate goal is to organize a complete environmental management system,” Kutlug explained, and that, though not always obviously, includes people.

Besides the beauty of the natural surroundings and the pedestrian-friendly layout with aesthetically pleasing buildings and landscaping, what is it about El Gouna that keeps the population swelling? Perhaps because there are ideal conditions for virtually every activity under the sun, except perhaps skiing, though winter-wonderland parks aren’t unheard of in Egypt. Who knows what the clever folks at ODTP will dream up next?

Sunbathing remains a prime activity for most, and there is no shortage of beaches or swimming pools, and even deserted islands like Tawila and Gobal islands are just a boatride away for those who truly crave seclusion. If a little background atmosphere is required, Mangroovy and Zeytouna beaches have food and drinks and a little music to keep the groove up, as well as beach volleyball and other activities. The Club House, with its central location and swimming pool, is a favourite for El Gouna residents, and a great place to meet people through their volleyball tournaments and general small, friendly, casual atmosphere.

Those that who prefer land to sea will not want for things to do either. Shopping is always an option, from designer clothes to local handicrafts and unique home furnishings. A plethora of wellness and beauty centers exist if pampering is on the agenda. The inner chambers of the oriental hamem (bathhouse) at the Steigenberger is particularly inspired, fitting the images conjured up by the tales of 1001 nights. Creative types may be drawn to the rustic atmosphere of the Art Village run by potter Ahmad Saeid. Ahmad offers classes on demand where you can make your own masterpiece out of clay for just LE50, including all materials and kiln firing. Ahmad’s folksy pieces with Egyptian themes may require more than a couple of classes to replicate, but they are for sale in the village shop, along with hundreds of other locally-produced handicrafts. Dedicated artists should consider renting a very affordable mudbrick apartment and taking advantage of a well-equipped studio to create to their heart’s content, whatever their medium.

Seasonal high winds and clear skies all year round bring golf enthusiasts to El Gouna to swing on the 18-hole Par 72 golf course designed by Gene Bates. The course is pretty much deserted in the heat of summer, but there is hardly a chance that anyone will slog through mud at any point of the year, and shorts make for comfortable attire year round. Other land options include horse or camel riding, go-cart racing, aerobics and gymnastics in the L’Etoile studio, or a quad biking safari. In the evening, choices range from sitting out under the stars at any one of the numerous cafes, enjoying live music, playing billiards, socializing with friends, or dancing at the Palladium disco so that no one gets bored. One of the more popular activities is a trip to the Bedouin camp at the oasis at the foot of the mountains bordering El Gouna, where guests are treated to a traditional meal, a camel ride, and can see the making of natural products like jojoba and olive oil.

Orascom Development for Tourism Projects has poured enough money and heart into El Gouna that they will keep it going at (almost) all costs, but they would prefer those costs to be minimal. ODTP executive Samih Sawiris said that they are actively seeking to build up other industries besides tourism, explaining that a mono-tourism culture would be devastating to the image and quality of a town. “One of the things that one learns from history is that not one of these towns that grew around a single industry or factory ever succeeded as a town that was nice place to be. We are doing our best to stay away from that.” He pointed to the eco-tourism projects being championed by Green Gouna as quickly developing into a kind of industry in itself, citing the hundreds of cultivated acres.

A beverage manufacturing facility was built at the outset of the El Gouna project to provide a second source of jobs and income to the community, but it was quickly bought out by a rival company who then shut it down to stifle competition, much to the surprise of Sawiris. Another industry, but now one that now must satisfy environmentally-friendly requirements, would be heartily welcomed. For now, things seem to be rolling along just fine, and El Gouna is held up in more than one industry report as a model of integrated development for the Middle East.