Occupancy at the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel totalled 50% and expectations are that this number will rise further in February, driven by influx of Arab tourism to Egypt.

Director of Sales & Marketing at the Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo, Tawfik Mokhtar, said that the hotel competes with other establishments overlooking the Nile by providing more exclusive services to its guests.

Mokhtar attributed expectations of growing occupancy to the visit of the Chinese President to Egypt, which will increase the number of Chinese visitors to Cairo. However, he noted that it is hard to estimate occupancy, as the state of security in the capital is unpredictable.

Approximately 116,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt in 2015. The Ministry of Tourism believes this number will grow to 200,000 by the end of this year.

The price per room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel stands at $300 per night, but is subject to change according to the hotel’s bookings.

Mokhtar said the hotel’s room price will not increase immediately after tourism recovers, but may take up to two years to stabilise. He noted that hotels will continue to offer lower prices to attract more tourists.

The development of Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel registered a total cost of more than EGP 1bn. The 13-storey hotel offers 327 rooms and 52 suites of different sizes.