Some 7k new hotel rooms are expected to be added to Egypt’s hospitality sector by 2023 as disruptions inflicted by covid-19 fade, according to a quarterly report by Collier’s International (pdf). New construction projects put on ice during the pandemic are looking to resume activity, which is expected to grow the number of hotel rooms in Alexandria by 12% and those in Cairo by some 4%. A Tourism Ministry source had said last month that Egypt wants to add 10k hotel rooms by the end of 2021 alone.

How hotels are doing now: This comes after hotel occupancy rates in 2020 fell by up to 66% y-o-y in Cairo, 43% in Alexandria, 56% in Sharm El-Sheikh and 60% in Hurghada due to the collapse of global tourism this past year. Egypt has missed out on some USD 14 bn in FX due to the outbreak.

But we’re banking on a quick recovery expected to bring tourism back to pre-pandemic levels by 2022 thanks to our many open air attractions according to Tourism Minister Khaled El Enany. Tourism has already been on the upswing since July with some 270k – 290k visitors on average now entering the country every month for the past three months. The sector made USD 800 mn in revenues from July through September 2020, which is a sizable 162% increase from the previous quarter, but still lags far behind its USD 4.2 bn quarterly revenue reported over the same period in 2019.