Egypt plans to more than triple hotel capacity in Nazlet El-Semman, the area beside the Giza Pyramids, as Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Saturday that rooms there could rise from about 5,000 to between 15,000 and 20,000. The expansion is expected to bring in another 2 million to 3 million tourists, turning one of the country’s most sensitive tourism zones into a far larger accommodation hub.
Madbouly announced the plan during a tour of Giza governorate, where he met investors and residents of Nazlet El-Semman and tied the project to a broader effort to regularise unlicensed buildings and shield businesses from demolition. The government will issue temporary operating licenses immediately after the upcoming Eid Al-Adha holiday, and a joint working group of tourism and local officials will be stationed in the area to speed up the permits.
The district sits next to the Giza Pyramids and overlooks the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, which gives the development unusually high stakes. Madbouly said upgrading the area to a more “civilised” standard had been a long-held priority, but added that no plan would be carried out without the conviction and participation of local residents. That message mattered because many of the people living and working there have spent years under threat of removal rather than under a clear legal framework.
Residents told the prime minister they have financed their own operations without bank loans and asked for upgrades to the local health unit, underscoring how much of the area’s economy has developed informally and without durable public services. Hossam El-Shaer called the visit “historical” and said families in Nazlet El-Semman have lived with the threat of removal for 40 years. He said the temporary permits would finally give owners legal protection and allow them to upgrade facilities to global standards without first securing local building or reconciliation letters.
Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy said 95% of the existing structures in the area already comply with the government’s development plans, while the remaining 5% will be reviewed with project consultant Mohamed El-Khatib. That assessment suggests the state is trying to manage the district rather than clear it, a sharp shift in a place where the threat of demolition has shaped business decisions for decades.
Madbouly’s stop in Giza was not limited to the pyramid district. During the same tour, he also inspected new educational facilities in Bulaq El-Dakrour and stressed the need to bring artificial intelligence, programming and financial literacy into classrooms. But the larger message of the day was closer to Nazlet El-Semman: the government wants the area to grow, not disappear, and it is preparing the paperwork to make that official after Eid Al-Adha.
