(AFP FILE PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI)
The Ministry of Tourism has postponed offering 95,000 metres in Hadabet El-Toud, east of Luxor to 2016, until tourist flow to Egypt recovers, according to a ministry official.
The Tourism Development Authority (TDA) proposed a tender for the area at the end of 2013, but no investors offered to take on the projects.
In the same year, the Luxor governorate requested sovereign authorities reconsider the dimensions of the area near Luxor International Airport, to begin offering them to tourist investors in cooperation with the TDA.
The National Centre for Planning State Lands Uses subjected 5m metres to the TDA’s jurisdiction in 2012.
Targeted hotel capacity in the region is 15,000 rooms, with investments exceeding EGP 5bn, according to the official.
The number of fixed hotel rooms in Luxor and Aswan is 5,000 rooms, in addition to 17,000 floating hotel rooms on the river between the two cities.
Hotel occupancies in Luxor and Aswan currently range between 10% and 15%, according to Tharwat Al-Agamy, Chairman of the Chamber of Companies in the South Valley.
Al-Agamy expects an increase of occupancies in June with the arrival of Spanish tourists, adding that there is always a decline of occupancies in summer due to the high temperature.
Vice-Chairman of the Chamber of Companies in the South Valley, Mohamed Othman, said that they will work to unite efforts between the governorate and the tourism sector in Luxor to speed up the return of foreign flows to the region soon.
Al-Agamy demanded intensifying incentives for charter flights next winter in order to increase the flights movement in the region.
Tourism Minister Khaled Rami said that the ministry is reconsidering the charter flights incentives programme.
