Entlaq, Egypt’s leading policy and research think tank focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic transformation, has officially launched Egypt’s Tourism Sector Performance Report, a comprehensive data-driven assessment outlining pathways to unlock higher value creation across Egypt’s tourism sector through digital reform, TourismTech innovation, and inclusive growth, Invest-Gate reports.
The report was launched in partnership with El Gouna as Platinum Sponsor, highlighting the destination’s role as a national model for sustainable, technology-enabled tourism development. The launch comes at a pivotal moment, as Egypt recorded a historic high of 15.7mn international tourist arrivals in 2024, with tourism contributing around 8.5% of GDP, generating USD 14–15bn in annual foreign exchange revenues, and supporting nearly 2.5mn jobs. Despite this strong recovery, the report notes that value capture per visitor remains below potential.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Omar Rezk, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Entlaq, stated that while Egypt’s tourism sector has demonstrated strong global appeal and momentum—particularly following the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum—the core challenge lies in value creation rather than visitor volumes. He emphasized that without coordinated reform across governance, licensing, digital infrastructure, and MSME enablement, growth will remain concentrated and low-productivity. Rezk added that a unified digital and TourismTech-driven approach could enable the sector to double its economic contribution by 2030, shifting toward a high-value, innovation-led growth model.
Rezk further stressed that tourism MSMEs and startups represent the backbone of global tourism economies, noting that regulatory complexity, fragmented digital systems, and limited access to finance continue to constrain Egypt’s “missing middle,” undermining sector-wide productivity and resilience.
From his side, Mohamed Amer, CEO of El Gouna, expressed pride in partnering with Entlaq on the report, underscoring El Gouna’s position as one of Egypt’s most prominent Red Sea destinations and a fully integrated, year-round town. Home to over 25,000 permanent residents from more than 50 nationalities, El Gouna combines hospitality, culture, sports, and innovation through platforms such as the El Gouna Film Festival, G-Space, G-Valley, and international sports events, while positioning itself as a hub for entrepreneurship and TourismTech.
Amer added that El Gouna’s integrated business ecosystem supports inclusive economic growth by generating stable, year-round employment across multiple sectors, while enabling startups and creative businesses to operate within a professional and innovation-driven environment.
According to the report, Egypt’s tourism constraints are no longer demand-driven but stem from system-level fragmentation, with governance responsibilities dispersed across multiple entities, leading to duplicated procedures and weak coordination. Tourism licensing timelines currently range between 6–12 months, involve 10–16 approvals, and remain only 10–30% digitized, compared to 1–2 months and 85–95% digitization in peer markets such as the UAE.
Dr Reham ElMorally, Head of Public Policy at Entlaq, noted that informality remains high in several governorates, including Fayoum, Minya, and Qena, driven by opaque registration processes and inconsistent regulatory definitions. She highlighted TourismTech and digital transformation as among the most underutilized growth levers, with Egypt still scoring zero on several smart tourism indicators, unlike peer countries such as Morocco, India, and Indonesia.
The report presents an integrated reform agenda spanning digital infrastructure, governance, MSME enablement, and human capital. Scenario-based modeling indicates that under a full reform pathway, tourism’s GDP contribution could rise from 8.5% (EGP 1.4trn) to 15% by 2030, generating an additional EGP 1.8–2.1trn in value added. Annual foreign exchange revenues could reach USD 25–30bn, while direct employment could expand to 3.5–3.7mn jobs.
The report concludes that with coordinated reform, Egypt’s tourism sector can transition from a high-volume recovery model into a high-value, innovation-led engine of inclusive growth and economic resilience.