Tourists’ average spending in Egypt this year is expected to come in at USD 95 per night, Deputy Tourism Minister Ghada Shalaby told the local press. This is nearly on par with the USD 100 tourists spent per night on average in 2018. Shalaby sees the newly set minimum rate of USD 40 per night for five star hotels and USD 28 for four star hotels helping to boost tourist spending and the country’s total income from tourism. The deputy minister had previously said that Egypt was targeting tourism revenues of USD 6-7 bn this year as tourist volumes recover to around 60% of their pre-pandemic levels, while Tourism Minister Khaled El Enany said tourism could return to pre-pandemic levels as early as fall 2022.

Meanwhile, domestic tourism is getting a leg up until the end of the month with the extension of a government initiative to mark down airfare and hotel rates in a bid to support local tourism, according to a Tourism Ministry statement. The initiative, launched last January, offers marked down plane tickets from Cairo and Alexandria to Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh, Taba, and Marsa Alam. It was originally scheduled to run through 28 February before being extended until 15 May.