The government wants to increase the number of hotel rooms in Egypt by 200,000 over the next five years in order to attract some 30 million tourists annually.

According to Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli speaking at a cabinet meeting last week, the current number of hotel rooms accommodates 18 million tourists per year.

Construction work is underway in Alamein and in other North Coast and Red Sea cities in order to bridge this gap.

All eyes are also on the North Coast this year, primarily due to the state’s partnership with the UAE in the Ras Al-Hekma project and a new collaboration with the Talaat Moustafa Group in the South Mediterranean project. Several touristic resorts and hotels are being built between the two projects.

The North Coast is home to many cities that are attracting the attention of real-estate developers, with most of them interested in six cities in particular — Sidi Heneish, Ras Al-Hekma, Dabaa, Ghazala Bay, Sidi Abdel-Rahman, and Alamein.

Ahmed Kira, managing director of the Horouf Company for Tourism Projects, said that between 3,000 and 4,000 new hotel rooms would soon be managed by foreign companies. At present, there are some 5,000 hotels rooms available in Alamein and Marsa Matrouh.

Kira said that for the North Coast resorts to be operational all year round, it is crucial to promote the area in different markets and develop various tourism models beyond traditional recreational tourism.

He suggested capitalising on the nearby Siwa Oasis to boost therapeutic tourism, leveraging the presence of private universities in Alamein to foster educational tourism, and developing conference tourism to ensure the area remains active outside the summer season.

He also stressed the importance of promoting charter flights to Alamein and Marsa Matrouh and encouraging tourism companies to design travel itineraries for the area. This would help maintain consistent air traffic for eight to 10 months of the year, he said.

He noted that the demand for hotel rooms currently exceeds supply. Before new tourism models can be introduced, the number of rooms must be increased, he said, adding that room prices on the North Coast have risen by 15 to 20 per cent over the past year.

The number of tourists visiting Egypt is expected to reach 15 million by the end of the year, a modest increase from last year’s figures, according to recent statements by the minister of tourism. This figure falls short of the 16.5 million tourists anticipated by former minister of tourism Ahmed Issa in May.

Tourism revenues have grown by five per cent, reaching $6.6 billion in the first half of 2024. During this period, Egypt received 7.069 million tourists.

In July, the cabinet launched an initiative to provide soft financing to tourism project owners, offering loans at an interest rate of 12 per cent, with total funding of LE50 billion, to support the establishment of new hotel rooms.

Ramy Fayez, a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Hotel Establishments in Egypt, said that while the initiative would contribute to increasing the number of hotel rooms, its impact may be limited.

He suggested that it could be more effective if it focused on supporting the owners of troubled projects to help them reopen closed existing rooms.

He said that it could cost more than $100,000 to construct one hotel room and doubted that the initiative would help to meet the required number. “To achieve that, it is important to encourage foreign investment in building new rooms and focus on reopening those that are currently closed,” he stated.

Hisham Idriss, a member of the General Assembly of the Chamber of Tourism Companies, said that to ensure that coastal areas operate year round, it is crucial to encourage conference tourism and therapeutic tourism as well as more traditional recreational tourism.

It is also important to offer incentives to the owners of restaurants and tourist facilities, such as discounts on rent, and expand the use of hotel apartments licensed by the Ministry of Tourism to increase accommodation options in the North Coast, he said.

Idriss suggested that the North Coast should be marketed in Eastern Europe, for example, accompanied by the introduction of low-cost flights. This strategy would help to attract more tourists from the area, ensuring that the North Coast is not solely dependent on Arab tourists during the summer season.

He pointed out that Eastern European tourists would find the coastal area’s winter climate more favourable than that in their own countries.

The North Coast competes with other tourist destinations in France, Spain, and Greece, and to increase its competitive edge more foreign tourists should be encouraged to visit it, Idriss said.

At present, local tourists account for 50 per cent of visitors, Arab tourists account for 40 per cent, while the remainder are foreigners.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly