Seventeen resorts in Marsa Alam and al-Qusayr, the Red Sea, out of 72 resorts have closed due to financial obstacles, said Atef Abdellatif, a member of the Marsa Alam Investors Association, in a press statement Wednesday.
The tourism sector has been facing obstacles since 2010, such as 30 percent of banks suspending funding for tourism projects as well as the increase of direct and indirect expenses due to the rise of fuel prices, the statement added.
Abdellatif called on the government to stop the fines imposed on investors who cannot pay installments for lands allocated to tourist projects, as well as fines of general sales tax.
Resorts revenues declined by 55 percent due to the decline of the euro exchange rate with the US dollar, seeing as 90 percent of incoming tourism to Egypt is from the European countries, according to Abdellatif.
Abdellatif criticized linking the renewal of resorts' licenses to paying debts, saying it would be impossible because global tourism companies contracts only with licensed resorts.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
