Egypt to host more Turkish tourists as relations improve

Unsplash.com/Simon Berger

Egypt will likely host 250,000 Turkish tourists this year as relations between the two nations improve.

Cairo hosted around 80,000 Turkish tourists in the first four months of 2024, Amr El-Kady, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Authority, told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The Egyptian government is working on several initiatives to boost tourism, with a primary focus on infrastructure projects, he added.

---

---

These projects include developing roads, highways, airports, and hotels, which benefit both tourists and citizens.

The government subsidises almost 40 percent of the interest on loans used to build hotel construction and partially covers the costs of any airline flying to Egyptian airports, making travel more affordable for tourists. 

The focus is on growing tourism in Sharm el-Sheikh, Gouna and Luxor by offering various incentives, a report by newspaper Daily Sabah said, quoting El-Kady.

• Egypt’s outlook revised up as external financial risks ease
• Tourists keep flocking to Egypt as conflict rumbles on
• Work on ADQ-backed resort in Egypt ‘to start this year’

He said that the Russia-Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict have not negatively impacted the number of tourists visiting Egypt.  

In February, Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi met for the first time in 10 years in Cairo, aiming to boost its trade to $15 billion in the next five years.

Egypt’s total visitor numbers rose 27 percent in the first four months of 2024, according to the country’s vice minister of tourism and antiquities.

The tourism ministry aims to increase inbound visitors by 25-30 percent this year, as it chases a target of 30 million visitors a year by 2030.