CAIRO: Egypt has completed construction on 4,000 new hotel rooms, which will enter into service once global travel restrictions are lifted, according to a source at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.
Egypt’s hotel capacity currently stands at 205,000 rooms and is set to exceed 215,000 rooms by the end of 2021, an increase of 4.8 percent.
Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for the Control of Hotel and Tourist Establishments Abdel Fattah Al-Assi said that the average tourist occupancy in hotels at the beginning of 2021 until mid-February was about 50 percent, compared to about 80 percent during the same period last year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Egypt allowed the resumption of international tourism at the beginning of July 2020 in three governorates — the Red Sea, South Sinai and Matrouh — after initially halting all operations in mid-March 2020.
As part of the country’s latest efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, the Ministry of Tourism has decided to allow hotels to operate at a maximum of 50 percent.
A source said that the number of hotels that had obtained permits to receive tourists had reached 725 fixed properties and 75 floating hotels in Luxor and Aswan.
The Ministry of Tourism has launched the “Shatty Fe Masr” initiative to encourage local Egyptians to visit archaeological sites in areas such as Luxor, Aswan, the Red Sea and Alexandria. The source estimated the number of hotels that participated in the initiative at about 150, of which more than 50 percent of them had shares of floating hotels.
The source also said, “the occupancy in Hurghada is better than Sharm El Sheikh, in light of the high percentage of local tourism from Egyptians who prefer it to any other area.”
Reuters reported in January that Egypt’s tourism revenues in 2020 decreased 70 percent to $4 billion, as the number of travelers to the country fell from 13.1 million in 2019 to 3.5 million last year. Tourism accounts for about 15 percent of Egypt’s GDP.
Egypt set to exceed 215,000 hotel rooms by end of 2021
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Egypt set to exceed 215,000 hotel rooms by end of 2021
- Egypt’s hotel capacity currently stands at 205,000 rooms and is set to exceed 215,000 rooms by the end of 2021
- The country allowed the resumption of international tourism at the beginning of July 2020 in 3 governorates
Qatar CPI falls in January, annual inflation rises 2.28%
JEDDAH: Qatar’s consumer price index climbed 2.28 percent in January from a year earlier, official data showed, while registering a 2.22 percent drop from the previous month.
The decline from December was led by an 11.97 percent drop in recreation and culture prices, alongside decreases in miscellaneous goods and services, restaurants and hotels, clothing, food and housing-related costs, Qatar News Agency reported, citing data from the National Planning Council.
This was followed by miscellaneous goods and services at 3.46 percent, restaurants and hotels at 1.90 percent, clothing and footwear at 1.15 percent, food and beverages at 0.59 percent, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 0.17 percent.
Qatar’s inflation remains relatively contained compared with wider global price swings, helped by stable housing costs and government subsidies. Across the region, trends are mixed, with Saudi inflation easing to 1.8 percent in January while Egypt’s annual rate slowed to 10.1 percent even as monthly prices jumped.
“The annual increase, comparing January 2026 with the same month in 2025, was driven by rises in eight groups,” QNA reported, noting that the largest year-on-year increases were seen in miscellaneous goods and services, which rose 12.40 percent.
Price increases were observed in the transport group at 0.54 percent, followed by communication at 0.32 percent and health at 0.27 percent. Furniture and household equipment rose 0.20 percent and education edged up 0.06 percent, while tobacco recorded no change.
This was followed by recreation and culture at 4.90 percent and clothing and footwear at 3.25 percent. Food and beverages rose 2.87 percent, furniture and household equipment 2.37 percent, education 2.08 percent, housing and utilities 1.21 percent, and communication 0.40 percent.
In contrast, QNA further reported, three groups saw annual declines: restaurants and hotels, down 2 percent; health, down 1.38 percent; and transport, down 0.48 percent, while the tobacco group remained unchanged.
“When calculating the CPI for January 2026 excluding the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels group, the index reached 114.57 points, down by 2.65 percent compared with December 2025, and up by 2.51 percent compared with January 2025,” the QNA report added.
The index — which tracks inflation across 12 main expenditure groups covering 737 goods and services — is based on 2018 as the reference year, drawing on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 2017–2018.
