It was a busy night on the airwaves, with the nation’s talking heads covering the cabinet meeting on tourism, the latest on the dengue fever outbreak in Qena, and the prolonged problems facing the automotive sector amid the FX crunch.

Madbouly meets private-sector tourism investors: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbou ly yesterday chaired a meeting with a number of private-sector players focused on increasing hotel rooms and improving transport networks for tourists, according to a cabinet statement. “The meeting focused on hotel investment and ways to increase it over the coming five years by 200k hotel rooms,” tourism investor Hossam El Shaer told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi ( watch, runtime: 7:06). “A large number of the upcoming hotel rooms will be constructed in the North Coast … We need to add the North Coast to our tourism map,” he added. Private-sector players will also meet with officials from the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to discuss plans to transform the vacated government buildings in Downtown Cairo into hotels.

Investment incentives to boost tourism investments: All tourism projects will be eligible for single approval, known as the “golden license,” and will receive the necessary approvals to start operations within 20-days of applying, Madbouly said. The government is also working on a number of incentives to ensure land availability for tourism projects, and will also offer “incentives in the form of tax breaks, financing facilities, and land allocation,” El Shaer told Yahduth Fi Masr ( watch, runtime: 6:31).

REMEMBER- The Tourism Ministry wants to attract a record 15 mn tourists to Egypt this year, with the aim to attract as many as 30 mn tourists per year by 2028.

ALSO ON THE AIRWAVES-

All is not well in the car market: “We have an issue with importing … new cars are unavailable in the market, while the user cars market is either nonexistent or extremely overpriced.” Khaled Saad, secretary-general of the Egyptian Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told Ala Mas’ouleety ( watch, runtime: 5:21). “Vehicle prices at the moment are unacceptable and the Egyptian consumer cannot afford to pay them,” he said, adding that the core of the problem is the FX crisis.

Remember: Auto sales have plung ed more than 70% y-o-y in the first five months of 2023 as the FX crunch and soaring inflation weighs on the sector. Sales volumes fell more than a third in 2022 after capital controls in place for most of the year made it almost impossible for distributors to import cars and components, and forced a number of global car manufacturers to suspend sales to Egypt.

Dengue fever was still on the airwaves: After the Health Ministry diagnosed the mysterious disease outbreak in Qena as dengue fever, the nation’s talking heads continued to discuss what it all means, how it is transmitted, and how to prevent its spread. Yahduth Fi Masr ( watch, runtime: 4:50) and Masa’a DMC ( watch, runtime: 8:06) had the news.

How to avoid a heat stroke 101: Masa’a DMC’s Ramy Radwan ( watch, runtime: 12:25) walked his viewers over the necessary steps to avoid heat exhaustion and heat strokes amid the intense heat wave sweeping the globe. “Avoid direct sun exposure between the hours of 12 pm and 4 pm and drink loads of water,” he said.

Tags: