Engineer Sherif Shorbagy, Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, chaired a meeting of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Tourism Development. During the meeting, he reviewed the Authority’s efforts to support development at the sites under its jurisdiction. Dr. Manal Awad, Minister of Local Development; Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities; and General Khaled Mubarak, Governor of South Sinai, attended the meeting in person or via video conference.
During the meeting, the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Tourism Development approved the adoption of the Authority’s general budget project for the fiscal year 2025/2026. Additionally, they approved the request of the General Authority for Healthcare to allocate a plot of land measuring 8,000 square meters from the jurisdiction of the General Authority for Tourism Development in favor of the Governorate of Suez for the establishment of a field hospital to serve the Ain Sokhna tourist sector. The Center for National Planning of Land Use will be notified to follow the necessary procedures.
The meeting also discussed a quarterly follow-up report on implementing the Authority’s projects across all tourism development sectors up to December 2024. This report monitored 573 main projects, distributed according to development patterns: 506 limited development projects, 67 integrated development projects, and 1,158 sub-projects, totaling 1,664 projects across all tourism sectors. The discussion also covered proposed mechanisms to encourage tourism hotel investment projects under the jurisdiction of the General Authority for Tourism Development, in addition to discussing several issues related to tourism development projects and making the necessary decisions.
The meeting also reviewed the results of the facilities granted to tourism development and investment companies concerning the payment of their financial obligations due to the Authority, the status of several delayed projects, and the mechanisms for dealing with them.
Furthermore, the meeting discussed all procedures implemented regarding defaulting companies, those whose completion rate is less than 15%, and the full capacities required to execute essential projects.
The Minister of Housing concluded the meeting by emphasizing the need to work on implementing the directives of the political leadership to increase hotel rooms and tourism projects. He instructed the preparation of a complete classification of delayed cases and a plan for all these cases to be presented at the next meeting. He also mentioned that this plan would be studied before being given to the board, in addition to forming a committee with the participation of relevant authorities to amend the technical regulations governing the mechanisms of the General Authority for Tourism Development to cover all necessary cases and procedures in the upcoming phase.
