Ehab Abdel Aal, treasurer of the Cultural Tourism Association and a member of the general assembly of the Chamber of Tourism Companies, revealed that Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly has approved reducing the mooring fees for floating hotels on the Nile to 800 pounds instead of 6,000 pounds per day. He praised the decision to cut the fees, which is expected to be implemented at the beginning of next October, saying: “The correct information reaching the Prime Minister resulted in amending the first decision, after many demands and appeals by the sector’s investors to ease the burden and incentivize them, especially as tourist traffic regains its recovery.”
The mooring fee stood at 1,500 pounds when it was first applied last January, for the benefit of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, with the aim of dredging the Nile to prevent boats from running aground. Four times that amount was then approved, bringing it to 6,000 pounds, which is a burden on the owners of these hotels, especially as they are obliged to pay it whether they are operating or idle.
This came on the sidelines of the opening of the floating hotel “Blue Shadow 2,” after it underwent a comprehensive renovation costing more than 20 million pounds. Its hotel capacity is 62 cabins, divided into 58 standard rooms and 4 suites.
Abdel Aal noted that the entire Luxor Corniche is currently being developed to rehabilitate it for tourism, which will greatly affect the city’s tourist appearance, coinciding with the recovery of inbound tourist traffic during the summer season and its reaching a peak in winter, starting next October.
He called on the government to pay attention to dredging the Nile and creating a good navigation channel for tourist boats, to stop boats from running aground, which increases the burdens on their owners, gives tourists bad impressions and exposes them to risks. He stressed that the grounding of boats has begun to decline significantly, and that boat owners have begun cooperating with each other when any boat runs aground to prevent another from getting stuck in the same spot.
