Egypt Targets $38 Billion in Tourism Revenue by 2030

Joining me now is tourism expert and former advisor to the Ministry of Tourism, Say Assad.

Welcome to the show.

Hello.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you for hosting me.

Uh, Mr.

Same, it's our pleasure, of course.

So Mr.

Same, he ran Mistravel, a company owned by the same state holding group that this plan now expects to invest just 620 million pounds against nearly $118 billion from private investors.

From inside that system, is this a deliberate handoff to private capital or perhaps an admission that state companies can no longer compete?

Let's, let's start by saying, you know, the, um, there is only one, holding company for tourism and hotels.

Uh, uh, this to the, uh, to the government, and, uh, nobody's financing.

The government is not subsidizing, is not financing any, any projects.

So any money they put is coming from pure their, uh, profit.

So the, the holding company is having um 5 companies, um, tourism and hotels, and from the, uh, profit of the of those companies, really, uh, the money, so it's not that the, the government of Egypt is injecting directly money because these, these companies will pay pay everything in normal prices as a normal investment.

So definitely the private sector is the one who is contributing more.

So when private investors are asked to carry an entire national tourism program, what do they demand in return?

We saw, you know, Qatari's Qatari DR's Alamroom deal reportedly structured with land, a 15% revenue share, and residential allocations as well.

Are those the terms Egypt should be offering, or perhaps the terms it has to accept?

Let, let me start by saying 72% of the available rooms for tourists in Egypt is based on Red Sea governorate and uh South Sinai, OK?

So the hotels are there, it's the, the, the leisure tourism and, and 100% of those hotels are owned and financed by private investors and actually I, I could say that even the governmental tourism company has no hotels there and there is no real uh direct investment 100% from the Gulf countries on those except only the, the, there is an um Abu Dhabi fund is having a share in some, maybe in 2 or 3 hotels there.

But when I speak about 72% of the available rooms, yeah, I mean, let's say like 190, 195 rooms in Egypt are there and owned by Egyptian investors, mainly, so it's not that, yes, the Alam room, yes, Rassel Hekma, yes, the new destination in the The north coast are coming up.

Yes, the majority of owners are the Gulf countries, but so far the contribution of tourism is not seen yet because we need more number of rooms if you want to reach the 30 million.

It's not seen yet and still a lot of contribution in the north coast by private investors through uh tourist compounds, through hotels.

So, uh, at the end, for the moment, Only the contribution in tourism is coming from the private sector.

So asking another question, when they demand?

Yeah, right.

They demand facilitation and procedures.

Right.

So this is primarily what they need in order to, you know, progress.

So, Alice, you have also long argued that Egypt leaves billions in tourism revenue unrealized.

Uh, if you are allocating that 118 billion pounds program, uh, that we're talking about yourself, what's the first place you'd put money, uh, that investors today are overlooking?

I, I would put place, actually, I will open new destinations, you see, because now tourism is saturated.

I mean, Hurghada, I'm in South Sinai.

Let's see, when I speak about Red Sea, I speak about Hurghada, which is famous for everybody, uh Marsalam, which are the main uh uh location of hotels.

I would say that let's open a new destinations.

There is, there is a destination actually South Marsa Island.

There is a lot of opportunities could be done, and for the moment.

The, um, there is a new fund, it's taking, uh, 477 piece of land to resell it properly in a, in a better way.

So, First of all, we need to have new destinations to, to make more rooms so you can have more tourists coming there.

And not, let's not forget the, the Mediterranean.

Mediterranean still having some space to make new hotel and, but the Red Sea, in general, either South Sinai or Red Sea Governorate, they work almost, no, they work 12 months a year.

They work year-round.

The north coast has a problem.

It was mainly 9 months because of the other 3 months, there is, uh, wind, there is uh the conditions, the weather conditions are not the best compared to the Red Sea.

Well, you know, Mr.

Same, that's definitely a conversation to be continued, and we would love to have you back with us sometime soon.

And of course, thank you very much for joining us today.