Titanic Hotels and Hilton sign Egypt deals for $180m resort and 10 projects

New Administrative Capital, Egypt - A $180 million ultra-luxury resort in Sharm El-Sheikh and a 10-project Hilton portfolio worth about $262 million (EGP 14 billion) are covered by two hotel agreements signed at Egypt’s government headquarters.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly was present for both management deals with foreign operators, which were presented as a sign of rising local and overseas investment in Egyptian tourism.

Under the agreements, global hotel names arrive at several of the country’s main destinations. The deals feed into the National Tourism Strategy, whose 2030 goals are 300,000 hotel rooms and 30 million visitors a year.

On the Red Sea at Sharm El-Sheikh, the five-star resort was paid for with $180 million of wholly Egyptian capital. Its 560 guest rooms and 60 luxury villas line a one-kilometre private beach.

Building work is finished, and a soft opening is due within 30 days. Guests will find a ballroom, sports fields, a wellness spa, an aqua park and several restaurants, two of them international names trading in Egypt for the first time.

The owner, local developer Gazelle Investment, has handed management to Turkey’s Titanic Hotels group, which will debut its top-tier Titanic Luxury Collection label in Egypt with the property.

Gazelle Investment’s Chairperson, Hafez Bashir, signed with Muzaffer Aygün, Titanic Hotels’ Managing Director. Also in the room with Madbouly were Uğur Engin-Su, CEO of Titanic Hotels in Egypt, the Governor of South Sinai, Ismail Mohamed Kamal, and the Minister of Tourism, Sherif Fathy.

Three further Egyptian hotels are already lined up for management contracts between the two companies, according to Bashir, who said this showed the Turkish operator’s belief in the market and its growth over the long run.

At a separate ceremony, PRE Group, another local developer, agreed a strategic partnership with Hilton Worldwide to build and operate a combined hotel and residential portfolio worth roughly $262 million (EGP 14 billion).

The 10 schemes split into six new hotels and four branded residential projects, together providing about 2,000 hotel rooms and homes.

Each will carry one of five Hilton brands: Hilton Garden Inn, DoubleTree by Hilton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Canopy by Hilton or Tapestry Collection by Hilton. PRE Group said the partners matched the brands to each site’s character and setting, with different guest segments in mind.

Ivoire East in East Cairo, Telal Alamein, Telal Ain Sokhna and Jabal Ain Sokhna are among the PRE Group communities that will host the projects.

The developer’s Founder and CEO, Waleed Zaki, signed alongside Guy Hutchinson, Hilton Worldwide’s President for the Middle East and Africa.

Before the move, PRE Group commissioned a hospitality study of 12 of its projects across East and West Cairo, the North Coast, Ain Sokhna and Marsa Alam. Its finding was that hotels and branded homes should come first in the group’s plans for its next stage, and the deal is part of a push to build hospitality into the developer’s housing schemes.

Public investment in highways, airports and other infrastructure has paved the way for private companies to grow in the hotel and tourism business, Zaki said.

Carlos Khneisser, Vice President of Development for the Middle East and Africa at Hilton, said: “Our journey in Egypt began more than 65 years ago, and we still see significant growth opportunities across the country. We share PRE Group’s confidence in the future of tourism in Egypt.”

In his view, the deal extends Hilton’s 65 years of operations in Egypt and brings branded home ownership alongside its conventional hotel business.

Madbouly also witnessed a July agreement between Marriott International, Misr Italia Properties and People & Places to develop nine hotels and branded residences across Egypt with more than 1,500 keys.