Almost 90 per cent of the land overlooking the sea has already been allocated to investors, and there are expected to be 4,000 hotel rooms by 2000. The existing projects, which will cost LE1 billion, will provide about 1,000 hotel rooms. Planners will dedicate a whole area to the Riviera's Bedouin community. We want to encourage their presence, together with their crafts and way of life. They are part of the area and we don't want them to disappear, which is what happened to areas on the Mediterranean, where development drove them away.
Investors also plan to create a city centre.
They believe tourist resorts should consist not only of hotels and leisure facilities but of a community providing services. One such project is Taba Heights, which brings together a number of big investment companies. He added that the town community centre will include schools, hospitals, shops and other facilities. We don't have sound medical care. There are hospitals in Sharm Al-Sheikh and Nuweiba, but they don't have emergency facilities.