The Egyptian tourism initiative Sinai Trail has won the 2016 British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW) tourism award, one of the most prestigious travel awards in the UK.

Running for 200 kilometres from the Gulf of Aqaba to Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula, Sinai Trail is Egypt's first long-distance hiking trail that is organised by local communities of Bedouin tribes in Sinai.

"This prize makes all my tribes happy … It means we can restart our lives again," Sheikh Ahmed Abu Rashid of the Jebeleya tribe, one of Sinai Trail's guides, saidat the awards ceremony that was held in London earlier this week.

Launched in 2014, the initiative is aimed at "reviving tourism and creating job opportunities for locals of guides and cameleers," Sheikh Abu Rashid said earlier in a promotional video about the project.

The trail takes tourists on a tour of the Mount Sinai (also known as Mount Moses) and Saint Catherine Monastery, two of the main attractions of the Sinai Peninsula.

"Tourists can see the real Bedouin traditions and Bedouin lives and see Sinai through Bedouins' eyes," Sheikh Abu Rashed added.

All tourism projects participating in the British Guild of Travel Writers, the UK’s leading organisation for travel media professionals, have been developed within the past three years. The winners of the awards are decided by vote among BGTW members, numbering more than 200 professional travel journalists, guidbook writers, photographers, broadcasters and bloggers.

For more information about the Sinai Trail project, please visit: www.facebook.com/sinaitrail/

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/248755.aspx