Tourism topped the Madbouly cabinet’s meeting agenda this week
TDA under new management? The Madbouly cabinet is placing the Tourism Development Authority (TDA) under the purview of the Housing Ministry, transferring its administration from the Tourism Ministry, according to a cabinet statement today. Consequently, the TDA’s board will be reshuffled, with the Housing Minister being made chairman of the agency.
The move is meant to expedite the development of major tourism projects by minimizing the red tape involved in obtaining land, considering that the Housing Ministry’s New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) is in charge of distributing land for projects, cabinet media adviser Hany Younes tells Enterprise. The TDA is currently offering investors USD 15 bn in tourism projects, with plans to inaugurate new tourist destinations including El Galala and New Mansoura in the “coming months, Tourism Minister Khaled El Enany said back in May.
Attention tourism operators: The Madbouly Cabinet is looking to hire a tourism operator to manage a number of tourism facilities and services at key landmarks, according to the statement. These include managing the outdoor venues at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the rest area at the Sakkara Pyramids, and the outdoor facilities at the Mohamed Ali’s Palace in Shobra.
Other decisions taken by the Madbouly Cabinet today, include:
- Appointing Telecom Egypt to run five IT technical colleges and providing them with the required infrastructure.
- Having the Health Ministry designate a number of teaching hospitals to be managed by the Higher Education Ministry.