"When I told my family and friends I am coming to Egypt, everyone said I should visit Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan. No one mentioned any other place which I should visit. When I used to inform people that I am looking for a green place to spend my vacation in Egypt, silence was the only response I received. Therefore, I decided to come and look myself," an Italian tourist told the team of Egypt's Invisible Map, while they were introducing him to eco-friendly tourism in Egypt. Egypt's Invisible Map is a graduation project of 12 students with specialisations in mass-communications. It encompasses a marketing section through which they aim to promote Egypt's 16 eco-friendly places that few people know about. Noteworthy, the graduation project aims to shed light on Egypt's hidden treasures, which are usually forgotten when addressing tourists. "We kept on digging in the advertising campaigns which target foreigners who are interested in coming and visiting Egypt. We found them to be very successful and unique, yet all of them evolve around the same points and ideas," Aliaa El Ramlawy, a team member, told Daily News Egypt. Throughout their research, the young team found that all the advertising campaigns promoting tourism evolve around the Pyramids, the Pharaohs legacy, as well as Luxor and Aswan. "Meanwhile, there are thousands of other activities tourists can enjoy in Egypt, yet they are not spoken about or highlighted," El Ramwlawy added. Egypt's Invisible Map aims to highlight the 16 eco-friendly areas in Egypt, including the White Desert, Siwa Oasis, Dahab, Makadi Bay, Nuweiba, Marsa Allam, as well as Halayeb and Shalateen. The areas are accredited and listed at the UNICEF and the UNDP's lists of eco-friendly tourism areas. Nonetheless, they are not publicised as places which do not harm the surrounding environment. "Before we started our project, we did a research asking 200 foreigners who are interested in traveling what they know about Egypt and whether they are aware of having such places in the country. All of the foreigners were completely astonished of having such areas in Egypt," she explained. The research which the team conducted revealed that tourists only know about the Pyramids and the antiquities in Egypt, with no further knowledge regarding any other places. "What is so unique in here is that we have three eco-friendly places: the green, blue, and yellow; all are just waiting to be properly introduced to tourists," she pointed out. Through a set of ads, listed info, and publications, the project aims to inform tourists about the eco-friendly places in Egypt, the activities that can be done in it, how to reach there, and the required budget in order to enjoy the place the most. Within few days from the start of the project, the team was showered with hundreds of messages from tourists stating that they have been looking for such a thing in Egypt, but failed to do so. "This country is unbelievably beautiful, and it has magical combinations that are not elsewhere in the world, we just need to unwrap these hidden treasures," El Ramlawy explained. Among the things the team found while looking at the blue eco-friendly area over the Red Sea, is that Egypt has undersea living creatures that do not live elsewhere. "Once we published that, several people sent us wondering how to get there and where to stay in order to see such creatures, and that was only few days after we started the project," she stated. Egypt's Invisible Map's team is looking up into expanding to more than just a graduation project, and take it into a higher level of creating a hub for all those who are interested into knowing all about the eco-friendly tourism in Egypt.
