Hesham El-Shaer: The fees suddenly ballooned to EGP 1,500 instead of EGP 120 per night
By Akram Medhat
Hesham El-Shaer, a board member of the Chamber of Hotels and head of its Government Communication Committee, stated that an urgent appointment is to be set with the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, to discuss the possibility of reducing the mooring fees imposed on floating hotels starting this January, which amount to EGP 1,500 per night.
El-Shaer told Travel Yalla News that under this decision, floating hotels will bear EGP 540,000 a year, since the fees are not linked to their main season, winter, which is limited to about 5 months. So despite weak operations during the rest of the year, and operations that may stop completely at the height of summer due to extreme temperatures in Luxor and Aswan, they still pay these fees. He noted that hotels are currently emerging from their crisis amid the recovery of tourist traffic, to make up for losses in the millions over 7 years.
El-Shaer added that the floating hotel owners' objection came as a result of the sudden and rapid inflation of these fees, which until last October stood at only EGP 120 at the docks inside Luxor and Aswan, and only EGP 60 at the other docks in Esna, Kom Ombo and Edfu. He noted that as a result of the tourism slump and the halt of hundreds of these hotels during crisis periods since January 2011, an agreement was reached with the Ministry of Irrigation to reduce these fees by 50%.
He explained that the crisis began in October 2018, when the Ministry of Irrigation informed the hotels that mooring fees would become EGP 1,000 per night. A meeting was held between members of the Chamber of Hotels and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Irrigation to reduce them, but the result was shocking, with a sudden decision raising the fees to EGP 1,500 from January 2019. This angered the hotel owners because they had already concluded their contracts with foreign tour operators and estimated operating costs based on the announced fees, not the new ones.
