How is urban development related to tourism and what are the impacts of unregulated tourism? What are the benefits and possible dangers of rapid tourism and can it be prevented without damaging the economy?
About the speaker: Dr. Amir Gohar (Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning Practices)
Dr. Gohar is a tourism & urban planner and sustainable development expert with nearly two decades of working experience with municipal governments, research institutes, international development agencies, private sector firms and local community organisations. He provides World Bank training for local government officials in Riyadh responsible for large Red Sea tourism projects. He has worked extensively in the MENA region Africa, Europe and Latin America, with specific focus on tourism planning in the southern region of the Red Sea in Egypt with USAID, Agro-tourism planning for different sites in Saudi Arabia, the Cradle of Human Kind Park and the Kalahari in South Africa, and sustainable tourism in Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountains) in Libya.
His scholarship focuses on finding the appropriate balance between the trends of rapid tourism development and maintaining ecological integrity in both dense cities as well as remote nomadic towns. He is currently a senior lecturer in urban planning practices at university of the west of England.