RIYADH — One of the astronauts of the special crew of "Expedition 64" from the International Space Station of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) took several pictures of hundreds of islands located on the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia. These included 90 islands that belong to the Red Sea Project, which is tipped as the Future of the Global Tourism Destinations. John Pagano, CEO of the Red Sea Development Company, said: "Today we, the officials of the Red Sea Development Company, believe that nature is the most valuable thing that we possess and our source of inspiration. "Through our Project, we seek to harmonize with nature to innovate unparalleled renewable tourism and hence, we adopt sustainable and environment friendly solutions from the construction phase to the operation phase of our destination in the near future," he said. Pagano said that they are working hard to reduce any impact on the environment while developing the Red Sea Project by taking into account details of every decision of each department. Citing an example for this, the CEO said: "The Red Sea Project employs modern technologies to mitigate the impact of construction operations on the ecosystem. It has also taken into account, while developing the master plan, for the Project's hotels to avoid coral reef areas, by ensuring that the implementation of any work near them requires specific coordination between the participating working teams, including boat drivers in the area around the project, as well as surveyors, technicians and specialized divers." Pagano noted that all of them work under the supervision of the company's development team to ensure that no damage is caused to the structures of the flourishing coral reefs in the destination waters, but rather work on increasing their growth and prosperity. On his part, Chief Environmental Sustainability Officer at the Red Sea Development Company Dr. Rusty Brainard said: "I see thousands of pictures of our project site, but if the image comes from space, this is absolutely amazing! The details of the coral reefs in Al-Wajh Lagoon are unparalleled." "Preserving the same abundance in coral reefs in any tourist destination in the world 20 years after their inauguration is considered as a resounding success at present but our expectations have exceeded by our commitment to protect the coral reefs in the Project area and achieve an increase in the value of biodiversity by 30 percent," he said. He added that this requires adopting innovative solutions apart from choosing partners who share the same ambitious environmental goals.
