Gulf boost to Egypt tourism Monday, 19 July 2010 01:44

A senior Egyptian official said last week that Qatari investments in the Egyptian tourism sector amounted to 2.89 billion Egyptian pounds, being focused in the Red Sea area.

The official also pointed out that Kuwait was the biggest Arab investor in the Egyptian tourism sector.

“Kuwait invests around 9,250 billion Egyptian pounds in the Egyptian tourist sector,” said Khaled Makhlouf, the head of Egypt’s Tourism Development Authority, an agency affiliated to the Ministry of Tourism. “These investments are focused in the Red Sea, Ras Sidr, and Ain Sokhna,” he added.

Makhlouf noted that total Arab tourist investment in Egypt reached 17,634 billion Egyptian pounds at the end of 2009.

“The Red Sea has the lion’s share of these investments,” he said. “This area has more than 15 billion Egyptian pounds of investments, followed by the Gulf of Aqaba, Ras Sidr, and then Ain Sokhna,” he added.

The official said that Saudi Arabia was the second biggest Arab investor in Egypt’s tourism projects. He said the Saudis poured 3 billion Egyptian pounds in the sector, particularly in the Red Sea, Ras Sidr, Ain Sokhna, and the Gulf of Aqaba.

He added that the United Arab Emirates was the third biggest investor with total investments of 2,289 billion Egyptian pounds, followed by Libya, which invested 330 million Egyptian pounds in the Red Sea and Ras Sidr, and Lebanon, which invested 298 million Egyptian pounds in those areas.

“Egypt’s Tourism Ministry does its best to usher in a better environment to attract Egyptian, Arab, and foreign investments to this country,” Makhlouf said. He invited Arab and foreign investors to invest in Egypt’s tourism sector.

He said his authority tried to strike a balance between mega projects and smaller ones, which can be completed in lesser time.

“It’s well known that big development projects take more time and capital to be completed,” he said.

He added that the projects implemented by his authority raised occupancy in hotels and created 174,000 direct jobs and thousands of other indirect ones for Egyptian youth.

THE PENINSULA