The international press gears up for the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum

“There is perhaps no institution on earth whose opening has been as wildly anticipated, or as mind-bogglingly delayed, as the Grand Egyptian Museum,” the New York Times noted in a photo essay in its travel pages. Ahead of the museum’s official (and full) opening on 3 July, the paper noted — to the delight of the Tourism Ministry — that “even the museum’s incomplete offerings [before the grand opening] — along with the building itself and its [bn-USD] views — are staggering.”

Good press around the Grand Egyptian Museum is what we like to hear, with the USD bn+ project being an important part of the state’s plan to increase tourist footfall from 15.7 mn last year to 30 mn tourists a year by 2030.

WHILE IN LESS WELCOME TOURISM NEWS- Environmental groups are raising alarm over plans to develop Ras Hankorab on the Red Sea, Reuters reports. The currently fenced-off beach, located 90 minutes from Marsa Alam International Airport, could soon be home to dozens of tourist huts and a restaurant that conservationists say could damage one of Egypt's last untouched marine habitats.