On Tuesday evening, Engineer Sherif Shorbagy, Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities; Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities; and Engineer Hassan Khateeb, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, held a comprehensive meeting with a group of investors in the tourism development sector. The meeting, attended by Dr. Mostafa Mounir, CEO of the Tourism Development Authority, aimed to advance development rates, address investor issues, and discuss proposals.
Minister Shorbagy emphasized that tourism development is a top priority for the current government, with directives from the Prime Minister to activate the Ministerial Tourism Development Group. He assured that the Egyptian state is committed to maximizing returns from tourism development and providing full support to investors in the sector.
The Minister outlined a swift plan to enhance the role of the Tourism Development Authority and achieve the highest levels of tourism investment. This includes creating an electronic investment platform, updating current tourist center sites and plans, diversifying participation mechanisms, and fostering new tourism products. These measures aim to support and expand tourism activities.
Minister Fathy highlighted the need to focus on priorities such as boosting hotel investment to accommodate targeted tourist numbers. He noted that recent initiatives are expected to encourage and attract more tourism investments and to offer additional incentives to meet the sector’s objectives. Fathy stressed the importance of identifying and overcoming obstacles to expedite tourism investment and promoting opportunities for new projects across the country.
Minister Khateeb added that the current government’s program aims to double the number of annual tourists to Egypt, requiring significant investment in tourism development. He emphasized the need for a diverse tourism agenda to strengthen Egypt’s position among global tourist destinations.
During the meeting, investors presented their challenges and proposals, which the ministers committed to addressing through a one-stop-shop policy and comprehensive support to accelerate sector development and increase tourist numbers.
Dr. Mostafa Mounir provided an overview of the Tourism Development Authority’s current projects, which, once fully implemented, will add approximately 270,000 new hotel rooms to the 104,000 rooms currently under construction. He also mentioned the authority’s plans to facilitate investor processes and implement digital transformation in all dealings with investors, which are in line with political leadership directives.
