The Egyptian Cabinet is close to launching a new initiative worth EGP 50 billion to support the tourism sector and finance investments in hotel rooms, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Tourism, Ghada Shalaby, stated during an interview with Ashraq Bloomberg.

The initiative is in the final stages of preparation and the details of mechanisms and conditions will be announced soon, Shalaby added. This strategy came within the framework of Egyptian government's goal of increasing the number of tourists by 25 to 30% annually to reach the target number by 2028.

During the interview, Shalaby added that the government succeeded in operating about 15,000 new hotel rooms in 2023.

Secretary of the Cultural Tourism Investors Fund, Ihab Abdelaal, said in media statements that the details of the new initiative to support tourism, which may include paying 40% of the value of the installments due on the hotels benefiting from it in dollars.

Abdelaal expected that Egyptian hotels account for 75% of the hotel market share will benefit from the initiative.

In December 2023, the cabinet approved this initiative to support the tourism sector, by establishing and operating new rooms or acquire closed rooms.

Earlier in January, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Ahmed Issa, confirmed that Egypt's tourism sector in 2023 witnessed a series of achievements, with a total of 14.906 million tourists visiting the country.