Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt’s Red Sea Resort, has become the second EarthLung destination of the world.

Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, Zoheir Garranah, declared the commitment of Egyptian Tourism and said, “Following the initiative of Sri Lanka, we are happy to join the Tourism EarthLung Community with our resort destination, Sharm el Sheikh, committing to work towards becoming a carbon neutral destination in the future'.

This declaration was made at the opening of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) supported Conference for the Middle East and Mediterranean Region on the theme, 'Tourism: Responding to a Turbulent Economy and Changing Climate' held this week at Sharm El Sheikh’s Jolie Ville Convention Centre.

At the session on Climate Solutions, Renton de Alwis of Sri Lanka Tourism related the story of Sri Lanka’s efforts at mitigating climate change with the launch of the “Earth Lung Initiative” at the UNWTO conference on ‘Tourism and Climate Change’ in October last year in Davos, Switzerland.

Sri Lanka Tourism has since taken on a pioneering catalytic effort on a ten year agenda to work towards being a carbon neutral tourism destination. Sri Lanka, a country with a near 50 per cent green cover of its total land area and a 29 per cent forest cover, proposes to involve all stakeholders in a thrust to work in stopping deforestation, effecting reforestation, increased use of renewable energy and efforts at minimising pollution.

“Sri Lanka has launched a series of initiatives including Green Cover to plant 10 million trees over the next couple of years inspired by ‘Tourism’s Earth Lung project that aims for a Carbon Clean Sri Lanka,” stated Heba Al Ghais Al Mansoori, Middle East director of SLTPB.

Sri Lanka is an exotic tropical destination with an abundance of greenery and historical marvels - some even rated as world heritage sites by Unesco. Every tourist visiting the country has the opportunity to enjoy a vivid culture, varied eco systems and wildlife, and warm, friendly people.-TradeArabia News Service