Egypt's Tourism Ministry has begun inspecting floating hotels in Luxor, Upper Egypt ahead of their planned reopening and the resumption of Nile cruioses in October, after having been shut down for six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry said that starting Tuesday, it is carrying out inspection tours of floating hotels in Luxor governorate, and that the inspections will be conducted by joint committees from the tourism and health ministries as well as the chamber of hotel establishments.

Earlier this month, the ministry announced that it would allow the flotels to reopen in October – but at a reduced occupancy rate of 50 percent – in light of the country's plan to ease some coronavirus-related restrictions to keep the economy running.

Floating hotels have been closed since March as part of sweeping measures adopted by the country to curtail the spread of the deadly virus.

Since May, Egypt has allowed hotels that obtain new hygiene certificates to open for guests at a reduced occupancy rate in order to revive the tourism sector, which has been hit hard by the pandemic.

Acquiring the hygiene safety certificates and adhering to all preventative measures are obligatory requirements for the floating hotels to reopen, the statement added.

Egypt began on 1 July a gradual resumption of international passenger flights with countries that have reopened their airports, after international commercial aviation had been halted since 19 March to curb the spread of the virus.

Foreign tourists in tour groups have been allowed entry into the three coastal Egyptian governorates with the lowest coronavirus infection rates in the country.