Tourism sector investments to grow by 64% during 2021-2022

CAIRO - 28 November 2021: Investments in the tourism and antiquities sector are expected to reach about LE 8.5 billion in 2021/2022, compared to about LE 5.2 billion expected in 2020/2021, with a growth rate of 64 percent, and compared to LE 5.5 billion in actual investments in 2019/2020.

This came as a part of the Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development review of the targets of the tourism sector in the plan for the current fiscal year 2021-2022, which is the fourth year of the medium-term plan for sustainable development "2018-2019-2021-2022".

Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala El-Said, stressed in a statement that the tourism sector occupies a special importance for the Egyptian economy for several reasons, namely that it is a dynamic sector characterized by high growth rates and its large sectoral contribution to GDP growth.

She added that the sector represents one of the main sources of foreign exchange in Egypt, in addition to the sector's distinction with the expansion of its labor capacity, which its hotel and tourist facilities create many job opportunities, in addition to the fact that the tourism sector is characterized by a spatial spread of its activities to uninhabited desert areas, which contributes to increasing the area of ​​the Egyptian globe.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development included the targets of the tourism sector in the 2021-2022 plan. At the level of the sector’s production, it is estimated that it will reach about LE 120 billion at current prices, compared to LE 93 billion during the year 2020-2021, with a growth rate of nearly 29 percent.

It is targeted to increase the gross domestic product (GDP) of the tourism sector at current prices during 2021-2022 to LE 91.4 billion, compared to LE 69.5 billion in the previous year, with an increase of 31.5 percent.

The report pointed out that the development vision of the tourism sector is for Egypt to be a sustainable and attractive tourist destination at the regional and international levels, and an essential supporter of the national economy and the UN goals for sustainable growth.

The strategy to achieve this vision is to improve the quality of the tourism product with strict adherence to environmental standards and green tourism to ensure sustainability, diversifying the tourism product by targeting new tourism patterns, such as eco-tourism, sports and safari tourism, and diversifying foreign markets to attract visitors from emerging economies that are heading for greater openness.