Despite a relative proximity to geopolitical conflict and instability elsewhere in the Middle East, Egypt has shown to be a safe haven for hotel investment and development.
Now, Egyptian officials are preparing for the country's next stage of growth by addressing core needs that could woo even more long-term investors.
According to W Hospitality’s report titled “Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa 2026,” Egypt has a pipeline of 185 hotels and 45,984 rooms.
“Egypt dominates the African pipeline every year, with 37.1% of the total rooms this year, up from 32.5% (in 2025), and four times the number of rooms in second-placed Morocco,” reads the report. Of the 10 largest hotels and resorts in the pipeline, seven are in Egypt, an increase from it having three in the top 10 last year.
During a webinar hosted by the Future Hospitality Summit and HVS, Jonathan Worsley, chairman of The Bench, said Egypt is experiencing a defining moment as a tourism destination and hotel investment hot spot. In 2025, Egypt earned $17 billion in tourism revenue, and its aim by 2030 is to have 39 million visitors.
Ghada Shalaby, former vice minister of the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities and Arab Republic of Egypt, said one advantage Egypt has is that it is not dependent on tourism. She added the country doesn't necessarily need 30 million visitors to thrive.
“We would need to double our [hotel] room count, which will be difficult,” she said.
Cairo, however, does need more hotel rooms as it does not have enough to satisfy the ambitions of Vision 2030 and because it is a popular long-weekend destination for visitors from Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Shalaby said.
Fortunately for hoteliers in the country, a slight dip in hotel occupancy since the start of the U.S.-Iran war is not significantly affecting Egypt countrywide.
“We have seen numerous crises, and we have developed crisis management to enhance the outcome,” Shalaby said.
Hala Matar Choufany, president for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and managing partner at HVS, said the Egyptian markets dependent on international and leisure have been less affected by the crisis, with their business on the books looking robust.
Egypt achieved 12% gross domestic product growth in 2025, 75% debt to gross domestic product ratio and received $30 billion net foreign direct investment last year, said Alain Debare, HVS' partner and head of investments and asset management for the Middle East and Africa.
Egypt “is not a tourism-recovery story but an investor-interest story,” Debare said.
There is room for international investment into Egypt, including investments that are institutionally worthy in such niches as repositioning, lifestyle and boutique hotels, resort upgrades and mixed-use, he said. Large amounts of capital are entering Egypt's luxury hotel space, notably in such developments as the New Alamein coastal expansion; Ras al Hekma; and Qatari Diar North Coast (Alam al Roum), with major investors including Qatari Diar, TravCo, MISR Bank, ADNIC and TMG-Icon.
In terms of operators, the large U.S. hotel companies are in the mix but are not the principal players, Debare said. He listed the seven key international operators, in order of hotel room count, as TravCo Group International Holding (11,741 rooms); Accor (12,924); Pickalbatros Hotels (11,164); H World Hotels (5,115); Marriott International (6,392); Sunrise (4,023); and IHG Hotels & Resorts (2,848).
Of Egypt's key cities, Alexandria remains under-optimized, Debare added.
Most of Egypt's new hotel supply is in the luxury segment, Choufany said. More markets are seeing their hotels move further upscale via new developments, repositings and renovations.
“The question is a function on execution. Will [developers] be able to deliver those products and uplift the market? There are a lot of existing opportunities that are being under-managed,” she said.
Maged Salah, managing director of real estate investments at Misr Abu Dhabi, is among the Egyptian developers looking for opportunities. While there are some possible deals still left to be made, he said Egypt has already gone through various seasons where investors have had to adapt.
“Whoever invested in those times are the ones making money now,” he said.
The Egyptian government is lending a hand to support its tourism and hospitality industry. Shalaby said one government initiative that has helped the country’s hotel-market transition is the recodifying of hotels, “to make sure luxury means luxury, midscale means midscale, in a market still dominated by package travel.” Another initiative is to reduce red tape around conversions of non-hotel buildings into hotels.
Salah said not all of Egypt's 30 million visitors will stay in a luxury hotel, but all will see a luxury experience. He added the 5.4 million-square-foot Grand Egyptian Museum — which opened on Nov. 1 in Giza and is the largest museum in the world chronicling a single civilization — will be a major draw.
Infrastructure
Behind Egypt’s rise is a major focus on building up its infrastructure. Choufany said one major task is to bridge the gap between the country’s ambition and the ability of investors to fund change.
“That is a real challenge that requires intensive infrastructure development. … Investment is still centered on Cairo and its new submarkets, a few extending outside of the [capital],” she said.
Among infrastructure additions are the expected high-speed rail and Cairo monorail services; improvements to major roads; and upgrades to its major airports, notably in Cairo and Hurghada.
Behind these developments are new laws that reduce paperwork, increase transparency and simplify long-term financial tools that help investors and banks be more aligned, Salah said.
“There is a major need to be more attractive to investors, who need better platforms and touchdown, things that make [them] more comfortable … and this extends to the exit of capital. I see no issue for repatriation of profits for foreign investors. I have not heard one case of [there being a problem], something that would harm the country’s credibility,” he said.
Initiatives to improve the hospitality workforce, especially in the seasonal resort market, also is providing investor confidence, Choufany said. Investors themselves have to put the work in to fully understand how each Egyptian submarket behaves and matures, she added.
But Egypt is still fighting a reputation that it's a market that lacks stability, Shalaby said. Salah agreed that there's plenty of room for stable investment across the country.
“Egypt is not a high-risk market for investment. … Overspill developments from the larger projects might be where the money is to be made,” Salah added.