Some 1.3k new hotel rooms are expected to be built in the North Coast, bringing the total number of hotel rooms in the North Coast to 3k, Deputy Tourism Minister Ghada Shalaby told Hapi Journal, without specifying an estimated timeframe. Shalaby didn’t break down how many of the rooms would be as expansions of existing hotels vs. how many would be at new properties.

Egypt wants to add 10k hotel rooms nationwide by the end of 2021 alone, a Tourism Ministry source previously said. The additional 10k rooms will give us a total national stock of 215k hotel rooms, the source added. This comes as new projects put on ice during the pandemic look to resume activity, which is expected to grow the number of hotel rooms in Alexandria by 12% and those in Cairo by some 4%, according to Collier’s International.

Hotels in Cairo, Alexandria and the North Coast are now allowed to operate at 70% capacity — the highest level they've seen since the pandemic began, courtesy of the new rules the government imposed last month in light of the improving epidemiological situation. A 50% cap on hotels had previously been in place for more than a year, after being raised from 25% in June 2020. Red Sea resorts in Hurghada and South Sinai — currently foreign tourists’ go-to place for holidaymaking in Egypt — witnessed a 48% occupancy rate, according to Shalaby.