Engineer Sherif El-Shorbany, Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, chaired a meeting of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Tourism Development. The meeting reviewed the Authority’s efforts to support development at sites under its jurisdiction. Attendees included Dr. Manal Awad, Minister of Local Development, Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, and General Khaled Mubarak, Governor of South Sinai, either physically or via video conference.
During the meeting, the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Tourism Development approved the general budget project for the Authority for the fiscal year 2026/2025. Additionally, the board approved a request from the General Authority for Healthcare to allocate an 8,000 m² plot of land under the Authority’s jurisdiction to the Governorate of Suez to establish a field hospital to serve the Ain Sokhna tourism sector. The National Center for State Land Use Planning will be notified to take action.
The meeting also discussed the quarterly follow-up report on implementing the Authority’s projects across all tourism development sectors until December 2024. The report monitored 573 main projects, divided by development pattern into 506 limited development projects and 67 integrated development projects, comprising 1,158 sub-projects for 1,664 projects across all tourism sectors. The discussion also covered proposed mechanisms to incentivize hotel investment projects under the General Authority for Tourism Development and various issues concerning tourism development projects, with decisions made accordingly.
The meeting further reviewed the facilities granted to tourism development and investment companies regarding settling outstanding financial obligations to the Authority. The status of several delayed projects regarding payments and how to address them were discussed. Additionally, all actions taken against non-compliant companies, including those with less than 15% completion, were reviewed and the full capacity for executing essential projects.
In conclusion, the Minister of Housing emphasized the importance of implementing the political leadership’s directives to increase hotel room capacity and enhance tourism projects. He called for a comprehensive classification of the delayed cases, with proposals for these cases to be presented at the next board meeting. This proposal will be reviewed before being presented to the council. Furthermore, a committee, including relevant stakeholders, will be formed to amend the technical regulations governing the Authority’s operations to include all necessary cases and procedures for the upcoming phase.
