Egypt aims to boost tourism by 30% per year by bringing in private firms

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Egypt, home to ancient pyramids and Red Sea resorts, intends to boost tourism by up to 30% per year over the next five years by bringing in private corporations to run sites and inaugurating a massive museum by the end of 2023, Reuters reported citing Egypt’s Tourism Minister.

Tourism is an important source of foreign currency and employment in Egypt’s faltering economy. The industry generated $10.75 billion in the fiscal year ending June 2022, up from $4.86 billion the previous year. But, it accounts for less than 1% of the worldwide tourism marker, according to Ahmed Issa, Tourism Minister.

The budget for more than 2,000 archaeological sites and 41 museums in the fiscal year 2021/22 was a modest 3.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($170 million at the exchange rate at the time).

“I think Egypt deserves and should be able to grow its tourism industry by 25% to 30% per annum consistently over the coming decade. And that should get us to about 30 million (visitors) by the year 2028,” Issa told Reuters in an interview.

“It’s a product that has the most compelling competitive advantage of all the products that Egypt can offer globally.”

Immediate goals include increasing airline capacity and boosting the investment climate by streamlining regulation, according to Issa.

He noted that the need to grow the number of hotel rooms to 500,000 by 2030 from 212,000 last year might attract $30 billion in private investment, and that private businesses were participating in trial programmes to operate 10 sites. These include the Giza pyramids, the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, and the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) that will soon house the country’s most prestigious artefacts.

“We are reviewing this experiment today, to be able to learn from it and be able to take it to the next level and expand on it,” Issa said.

GEM, a massive structure near the Giza pyramids that has been under construction since 2005, was expected to open between October and January, according to Issa. Egypt expects foreign leaders to attend the inauguration.

Issa added that a rebound in visitor numbers from Europe and other countries was compensating for losses from Egypt’s former top two markets, Russia and Ukraine. He also expects a boom in Chinese visitors this year.

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