The chief executive of The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) says “net zero is not enough” and has encouraged destinations to go further and regenerate.
John Pagano told a WTM session on Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Vision that the project would not just be carbon neutral but restore the western 200km-long coast between the cities of Umluj and Al Wajh in Saudi Arabia.
The first phase of the Saudi development is due to be completed by the end of 2023 and will feature a marina, an 18-hole championship golf course, entertainment and leisure facilities.
Pagano said 16 hotels within the development would open in the same year alongside a town that can accommodate the 14,000 workers and their families who are employed to work at the destination. Nine luxury hotel brands signed up last week.
He said scientists and construction teams have worked alongside each other to limit lasting damage to the environment in development of the complex.
“We brought science into our thinking right from the very beginning,” said Pagano. “We are about working with our environment. We’ve set an environmental ceiling to have no more than one million visitors [annually by 2030].”
Saudi Arabia is targeting 100 million tourists each year by the end of 2030, when the Red Sea Development Company is scheduled to be completed. About 20 million tourists visited Saudi Arabia in 2019.
As world leaders met at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Pagano said: “Net zero is not enough. It is simply maintaining the status quo and does add more to the environment.
“With the Red Sea Development, we’re trying to make the place better than when we first arrived.”
Pagano explained how eliminating single-use plastics in destinations was “simple” and “straightforward”. He added technology to reverse climate change already existed.
“Let’s plant more trees, more mangroves,” he said. “Nature is the solution to solving this problem.”
He called the Red Sea coral reef “resilient” after scientists separate from the development discovered heat-resistant corals in the region.
“We have the fourth largest coral reef system in the world,” he said. “If we can learn why our corals are more resilient can we restore the Great Barrier reef?”
More: Nine luxury hotel brands join Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Project
Travel and tourism can join political ‘top table’, insists WTTC chief