Dr. Rania Al-Mashat: "Egypt’s Tourism Sector Performance Report" Comes at a Critical Time

Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation, stated that the tourism sector has long been at the heart of Egypt’s development agenda due to its profound social, cultural, and economic impact. She emphasized that the government views tourism as one of the key drivers of inclusive and sustainable growth.
Her remarks came during her speech at the launch of the “Tourism Sector Performance in Egypt” report, issued by Entlaq, one of Egypt’s leading think tanks specializing in public policy, entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic transformation.

Future Competitiveness
Al-Mashat stressed, drawing on her experience as Minister of Tourism in 2018 in addition to her current role, that the future competitiveness of Egypt’s tourism sector depends not only on expansion or recovery, but fundamentally on innovation, diversification, and the integration of entrepreneurship and technology as core value-creation drivers.

Strengthening the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
She pointed out that these factors collectively represent a strategic opportunity to further strengthen Egypt’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, particularly in sectors such as tourism and travel technology, where innovation can accelerate inclusive growth, enhance sector resilience, and position Egypt more competitively within the global digital economy.

Tourism and Innovation
Al-Mashat added that the report “Tourism/Travel Tech: A Strategic Review of Tourism and Innovation Potential in Egypt” comes at a pivotal moment for one of the country’s most important strategic economic sectors. While tourism remains a cornerstone of national growth and foreign currency generation, she noted that its future competitiveness is increasingly tied to its ability to embed innovation, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship into its core operating model.

Initiatives
The Minister explained that the government takes pride in knowledge-driven and collaborative initiatives such as the Tourism/Travel Tech report, which goes beyond deepening understanding of the tourism ecosystem to serve as a knowledge-based, participatory process shaped by the perspectives of young innovators and ecosystem stakeholders. This reflects the state’s commitment to leveraging innovation and entrepreneurship as key drivers of economic transformation across priority sectors, particularly tourism.

Startups
Al-Mashat emphasized that startups and technology-enabled enterprises represent a critical lever for addressing structural challenges within the sector and unlocking new value. Globally, travel technology has evolved into an integrated ecosystem leveraging artificial intelligence, data, and connected technologies to enhance traveler experiences and destination management. However, she noted that these capabilities remain underutilized in the Egyptian market.

Strong Foundations
She clarified that this gap does not reflect a lack of capacity, highlighting that Egypt enters this transition phase with strong fundamentals, including a large and young population, a rapidly expanding digital and communications infrastructure, widespread mobile penetration, and a mature startup ecosystem ranked among the leading markets in the region.

Accelerating Tourism’s Contribution
Al-Mashat added that Egypt is expected to welcome around 18 million international tourists this year, underscoring the sector’s resilience and sustained global appeal. She also pointed to the accelerated contribution of tourism to GDP, which grew by 23% in the third quarter, in addition to the anticipated positive impact of the recent opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a landmark national achievement expected to stimulate demand for technology-enabled tourism services across the value chain.

Empowering Entrepreneurs
She affirmed that the focus on empowering entrepreneurs comes at a critical time, amid growing demand for innovative and sustainable solutions, in line with Egypt’s national direction toward more inclusive and technology-driven growth models.
In this context, Al-Mashat explained that the Egyptian government has taken significant institutional steps to strengthen coordination across the entrepreneurship ecosystem through the establishment of the Ministerial Group for Entrepreneurship, which she chairs.
The group brings together relevant ministries, public entities, and ecosystem stakeholders to remove barriers, align reforms, and enable innovative companies to contribute more effectively to national development priorities and job creation.

Startup Charter
She noted that the group is currently finalizing the Egyptian Startup Charter, a comprehensive policy framework designed to support startups at all stages of growth, with a strategic focus on high-growth companies as key drivers of investment and market expansion. The Charter enhances investor confidence through a clear policy roadmap, targeted incentives, streamlined government procedures, and a sector-priority approach emphasizing high-impact, knowledge- and technology-intensive industries, including travel and tourism technology.

Shaping Ideas
Al-Mashat stressed that this approach reflects a broader commitment to positioning entrepreneurs not only as participants in the innovation economy, but also as contributors to idea generation and agenda-setting. She added that the report supports a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the tourism sector and encourages more informed and effective engagement across the ecosystem.

A Knowledge-Driven Ecosystem
The Minister concluded by emphasizing that the Tourism/Travel Tech report reflects an ecosystem that values access to knowledge and diverse perspectives, grounded in the expertise of those shaping the future of travel technology in Egypt. 
By combining Egypt’s human capital, growing innovation ecosystem, and evolving policy ambitions, the report helps lay the foundations for a more dynamic tourism sector capable of scaling, supporting sustainability, and generating inclusive employment within the transition toward a high-productivity, export-oriented economy.

Source: Egypt’s Tourism Sector Performance Report