A total of 14.9 million tourists were welcomed in Egypt last year, thus breaking the previous record of 14.7 million visitors registered in 2010.
The figures from the Egypt Tourism Ministry show that the tourism industry remained unaffected by the Israel-Hamas war, VisaGuide.World reports.
Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Issa, considered the increase in the number of international arrivals a result of coordinated efforts between the ministry, the private sector, and strategic partners.
Minister Issa said that among the achievements for 2023 was a ten per cent increase in the number of hotel rooms, reaching a total of 220,000 rooms. The increase aligns with the ministry’s accommodation goals set for 2024.
Besides, the revenues of the Supreme Council of Antiquities experienced a five-fold surge in the fiscal year 2023-2024, thus effectively reducing its reliance on the government’s budget from two-thirds of its spending to zero.
The Minister of Tourism of Egypt emphasized the ministry’s commitment to developing sustainable tourism. According to him, this means balancing economic growth, preserving the environment and cultural heritage, and bringing economic and social benefits to the state.
Then, the Minister addressed the most significant problems in the sector while explaining the important parts of the National Strategy for Tourism Development, which began in November 2022.
These include facilitating the travel process for tourists by doubling airline seats, improving the investment environment for tourism, and also increasing the number of hotel rooms, and elevating the overall tourist experience and quality of tourism services in this country.
In addition, Issa highlighted the importance of partnering with the private sector in order to boost investments and increase room capacity to accommodate a total of 30 million tourists by 2028.
As part of this objective, the Minister disclosed the finalization of hotel investment incentives, pending some last adjustments in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance. According to a report from Skift, since October last year, multiple tour operators experienced an increase in trip cancellations from Western travelers.
We saw this whole fear of quick escalation between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Right off the bat, Egypt and Jordan tanked. Anything in the Middle East tanked.
Vice president of product for G Adventures, Yves Marceau
In spite of the commencement of the war in October, Egypt received continued growth in tourism, with a total of 3.6 million visitors received in the last three months. This accounts for an increase of 8 per cent from 2022, even though it is far from Egypt’s goal of 600,000.
