Egypt’s tourism investments likely to fall 28.8% in FY2020/21 – minister

Egyptian tourism sector’s investments are expected to fall to 5.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($324.8 million) within the 2020/2021 financial year, marking a 28.8 percent year-on-year drop, Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed said on Tuesday.

Earlier, these investments recorded 7.3 billion pounds during the 2019/2020 financial year.

The decline reflects the contraction that private investments in the sector will witness, which constitutes around 84 percent of total investments in the sector in within the 2020/2021 financial year, El-Saeed added.

The tourism sector is key in generating hard currency for Egypt and it contributes effectively to providing direct and indirect job opportunities, she said.

“The COVID-19 crisis has hit the sector severely. Thus, the government adopted a number of procedures to support the sector and its workforce amid the crisis, in addition to the initiatives that the Central Bank of Egypt has launched for the same purpose,” El-Saeed said.

In April, El-Saeed said tourism revenues in the 2019/2020 financial year are expected to reach about $11 billion instead of the $16 billion expected before the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Starting 1 July, Egypt has been gearing up to welcome back international tourists.