Few weeks after the Egyptian Parliament ratified the country’s new investment law, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has announced a $800-million investment to expand the Four Seasons resort of Sharm El Sheikh to make it the world's largest Four Seasons resort.

A total of 800 new rooms will soon be added to the existing property, bringing the total number of keys to 1,400.

Easing investment opportunities, cutting down bureaucracy and providing incentives to investors, the new law is expected to further boost the tourism and construction sectors in Egypt. According to the latest BNC report released by The Big 5 Construct Egypt (“Egypt Tourism and Hospitality Market Snapshot 2017”), there are over $335 billion worth of active construction projects in the country, five per cent of which belong to the hospitality sector.

“Thanks to a recovered political stability, state-led initiatives and the new investment law, we expect the tourism sector, which is vital to Egypt’s economy, to pick up in 2017, further inflating the demand for new hotels and resorts,” said Andy Pert, exhibitions portfolio director, of The Big 5 Construct Egypt, a leading international construction event launching in Cairo in 2018.

There are approximately $5.3 billion worth of hospitality projects in Egypt today, 70 per cent of which are in the initial stages of construction showing a healthy pipeline, as per The Big 5 Construct Egypt’s report. Beyond the Four Season resort, other notable projects currently under way to attract tourists include the Ritz-Carlton Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, and the Jumeirah Gamsha Bay Resort in Hurgada.

New developments in the hospitality industry are spread across the country, with Cairo’s rapid urban expansion fuelling the demand for additional hotels and resorts in the capital city, which already hosts over 20 million people. 

To meet this growing demand, a leading international exhibition company, dmg events Middle East, Asia & Africa, is bringing to Cairo its most successful and renowned construction event, The Big 5. From September 15 to 17, 2018, the New Cairo Exhibition Centre will host The Big 5 Construct Egypt, where hundreds of local and international manufacturers and suppliers of construction products will showcase the latest global, sustainable innovations and solutions for use in all current and planned developments.

Alongside the exhibition, a Global Meetings programne will enable business matchmaking, while The Big 5’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD)-certified workshops will offer a unique education programme dedicated to active industry professionals. According to the organisers, a high-level, paid-for ‘Big 5 Investor Summit’ will also attract global and regional institutional and private investors in Egypt’s built environment sector, to discuss current and future construction related project opportunities across the country. - TradeArabia News Service