The Ministers of Tourism and Antiquities and Finance announced in a joint statement on Thursday, the launch of an initiative to support the tourism sector, which includes providing LE50 billion in financing facilities for tourism companies, and facilitating the payment of installments.
The initiative aims to increase the capacity of hotel rooms, with priority given to the governorates of Luxor, Aswan, Greater Cairo, the Red Sea, and South Sinai.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy indicated that this initiative is an important step to support and stimulate tourism investments, especially hotels, in order to accommodate the increase in the number of targeted tourists.
Those wishing to obtain this initiative will be allowed to benefit from these facilities to apply over the course of a year, he expained, taking into account that the maximum financing for a single customer does not exceed one billion LE, and two billion in the case of “related parties”.
Fathy added that companies benefiting from this initiative will bear a low and decreasing return rate of 12 percent, provided that the withdrawal period does not exceed 16 months, with a deadline at the end of June 2026.
These companies will be given a period of six months after the end of the withdrawal period, he explained, in order to obtain the final or temporary operating license.
He noted that the number of applications submitted to benefit from this initiative has reached 96 applications who meet the conditions thus far.
Minister of Finance, Ahmed Kouchouk confirmed that the state treasury contributes to financing support for the tourism sector to establish hotel rooms, provided that the return rate supported by the treasury is used for a period of five years from the date of the first withdrawal of the value of the financing facilities.
Kouchouk said that companies operating and wishing to benefit from this initiative must sell 40 percent of their revenues in foreign currency to the financing banks.
He assured of the government’s utmost desire to support the tourism sector under financial policies that stimulate economic growth, and to continue providing cash liquidity to the business community in order to enhance the growth of the private sector in the Egyptian economy.
