North Coast

Tourist Resorts Swallow Up Public Beaches

Thirty-eight-year-old Ahmed objects to the new layout of public parks in Matrouh؛ residents of Matrouh now have no option but to walk along the tourist promenade or search for distant places,paths.All this is associated with financial and mental stress . In the past, he says, people could use all coastal areas from Marina onwards.

For Ahmed the most beautiful thing about Matrouh was that it was a place where you could interact with nature: “I’d go down to the beach, breathe in the sea air and lie in the sun.”

But he says that beauty began to disappear when buildings started going up: “What we have now is investment-driven... If you want to enjoy God-given nature, you’ve got to be able to afford it.”

The number of beach resorts in Egypt has increased by 478 resorts in the last six years (2019-2024). At the same time, 88 percent of the country’s beaches are now privately owned, compared to 14 percent in 2013, according to data analysis by Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

By 2024, the number of beach tourist resorts in Egypt had reached 562, and there were 500 private beaches, according to CAPMAS.

Gulf Capital With a Sea View

According to data compiled by ARIJ on 106 planned tourist resorts along the Matrouh Governorate coastline, most of them located between Al-Alamein and Marsa Matrouh, construction is already underway on the majority of these projects. Together, they cover an estimated 131,000 dunams.

Data analysis shows that 79 of these resorts face the sea, making a total beachfront of around 72 kilometers.

We also found that Gulf-based business partnerships, both individuals and institutions, have acquired roughly 32 kilometers of beachfront along Egypt’s northwest coast. Their planned tourist resort projects cover about 66,000 dunams, accounting for 51 percent of the total area of the tourist resorts included in our analysis.That does not include the Ras El Hekma project, which the Egyptian government unveiled in February 2024, for which the Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company has acquired the development rights. The Ras El Hekma project will have a 44 kilometer long seafront.

We found that sovereign wealth funds and government bodies in the Gulf states are behind the development of many of the waterfront tourist resorts. These include Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ), Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the government-owned Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the Qatar Investment Authority, represented through Qatari Diar, and the Saudi Ministry of Finance. These projects have taken over 43 percent of the total land area and more than half the total length of the coastline of all the projects implemented through Gulf-based partnerships or capital.

This is aside from the input from private companies in the Gulf states, or partnerships with businessmen who were, or still are, active in government agencies there. These include Majid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Emiri Court in the Emirate of Ajman and member of the Ajman Executive Council; and Mohamed Al Hajeri, executive director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority - the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government.

The list of real estate developers also includes Mohammed Alabbar, former advisor to the ruler of Dubai, who was the founding director general of the Dubai government's Department of Economic Development. Alabbar currently chairs the board of directors of Emaar Misr, which is partly owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD). The company has invested $18 billion USD in the Marassi and Soul Luxury Beach projects on the north-west coast, $15 billion USD in the Marassi project alone.

The environmental requirements for licensing tourist resorts stipulate that not to build on the beach area (defined as 200 meter inland from the shoreline, and with ministerial approval) and to adhere to conditions governing construction in coastal areas.

However, the Supreme Committee for Beach Licensing can consider the approval of all licences within the restricted area, which includes the entire Egyptian coastline.

Who actually owns land along the northern coastline is sometimes unclear. A case in point is the area on which Emaar Misr, partly owned by ICD, built the Marassi project. In 2006, Emaar Misr won a public auction for a plot of land measuring approximately 6,200 dunams, then belonging to the Egyptian government-owned company EGOTH.

Emaar Misr acquired the land for Egyptian pounds (EGP) 160.5 per square meter (equivalent to $27.9 USD at the time), paying a total of approximately EGP 1.04 billion ($174.6 million USD). EGOTH stated that it had been allocated the land by the Ministry of Tourism. In 2012, Emaar Misr obtained a licence to build the first phase of the Marassi project. But some months later, the investment department in Matrouh Governorate said that it had found evidence that it had jurisdiction over the land and that EGOTH was not entitled to sell it without prior consultation. The land registry refused to register the plot of land.

Licences for the second phase of the project were suspended pending resolution of the dispute by a special committee. Emaar, subsequently, completed construction of the project and put the units up for sale. Emaar Misr's financial report for 2020 shows that the land on which Marassi was built is now registered in the company's name.

The Sea as Undeclared “Property”

Hossam Muharram, former advisor to the Minister of Environment, says that the system of closing beaches to locals to build tourist resorts, begun in the 1970s, is unconstitutional, and could be overturned if a case was brought before the Constitutional Court.

Muharram argues that all citizens have a right of access to public beaches. He has no problem with having restaurants and parks as long as these are subject to environmental controls and the beach itself is not off limits to the public and only accessible to those in the tourist resorts, where the cost of services is so exorbitant that 60 to 70 percent of people are unable to afford them.

Lawyer and human rights activist Entisar Elsaeed, chair of the board of trustees of the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law, says that public beaches are a right guaranteed to people under the constitution: "It’s not reasonable that a country with thousands of kilometers of coastline should have most of it closed off with gates and signs saying ‘No entry except for guests.’ as if the sea itself has become private property."

She thinks legal action could be taken if it was proven that restricting or leasing of public beaches was taking place, or the coastal landscape was being altered, in breach of the constitution or environmental laws.

Elsaeed stresses that natural resources (including beaches and coastlines) are owned by the people, and that the state is responsible for protecting them and not neglecting them.

According to Elsaeed, articles 32 and 45 of the 2014 Constitution and Environmental Law No. 4 of 1994 stipulate that conditions for environmental protection must be met and that environmental approval must be obtained before any development is carried out, especially in highly environmentally sensitive coastal areas. “No party, not even the state, has the right to give up beaches without transparent control mechanisms and without some genuine benefit to the public,” she says.

The former head of the city council in Dabaa, which comes under the Matrouh Governorate, Major General Hussein Abu Taleb, made no secret of the fact that the authorities knew that beaches in tourist projects on the north coast could only be used by guests staying there. After all, local government departments in Matrouh had demanded that tourist resorts pay fees for the right to use the beaches and the sea.

Abu Taleb said on television that these projects were granted licences to build facilities on land facing the sea, not to completely take over beaches, which were public property. And so they would have to pay for this. He insisted that there was nothing in the contracts between the governorate - the governing authority - and the tourist resorts built on the land concerned suggesting that the beach and the sea belonged to those projects.

Abu Taleb said: “Tourist resorts have a special status and are closed areas, and the owners are the ones who use the sand and the sea.”He added: “There is no way anyone can get into a resort, especially on the north coast. No one can get in.”

“Special Attention”  

Development projects with UAE investment account for half of all the projects funded by Gulf investment or Gulf partnerships, according to data compiled on 106 tourism projects on Egypt’s north-west coast.

Tourist resorts linked to UAE investments also take up around 70 percent of the beach frontage and two-thirds of the total area of those projects developed with Gulf investment or in partnership with Gulf countries.

Emirati interest became especially clear when plans for Ras El-Hekma City on the north-west coast were announced. The city’s key facilities include an industrial zone, an international airport and logistic service centers. With a surface area of approximately 170 million square meters, a waterfront extending 44 kiloMeters, and reaching back 100 Meters from the shoreline, the city takes up most of the Ras El-Hekma peninsula.

UAE media celebrated the Ras El-Hekma City project, with the Emirates News Agency calling it the “crown jewel” of UAE investments abroad. It is located west of Alexandria between Marsa Matrouh and New Alamein City on land transferred to the New Urban Communities Authority. The project is expected to attract investments of $150 billion, according to the Egyptian government.

Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ) paid US$24 billion directly for the rights to develop Ras El-Hekma, while the Egyptian government retains a 35 percent stake in the project. ADQ is also to give $11 billion for investment in major projects in Egypt.

Described as the largest economic, real estate and tourism deal in Egypt's modern history, the project includes residential neighbourhoods, international hotels and resorts, entertainment venues as well as an economic free zone, logistics centers, and a large marina and business centers to attract global companies. ADQ is also developing an international airport there, the profits from which will go to Egypt.

Modon Holdings, selected to actually develop Ras El-Hekma City, launched the first phase with 7,700 housing units, with sales projected to reach $6.2 billion (EGP 300 billion) by the end of 2025. Prices start at EGP 15.9 million ($329,000) for a one-bedroom flat.

ADQ has links with one of Egypt’s largest real estate companies, the Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG). In 2024, ADQ and the ADNEC Group acquired 40.5 percent of ICON - TMG’s hospitality arm – in which the two companies plan to invest using a special purpose vehicle. TMG has announced an agreement with ADQ to collaborate on the development of Ras El-Hekma.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa is CEO and managing director of TMG. In 2010, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, but received a presidential pardon in 2017, after which he resumed his business activities. Hisham Talaat Moustafa now undertakes strategic projects in cooperation with the Egyptian government and Gulf investment funds, like ADQ. His group owns major real estate and tourism projects in Egypt, such as Madinaty and Al Rehab, as well as the SouthMED project on the north coast. He is currently a member of the advisory committee on developing Egyptian tourism, which the prime minister set up.

Government Involvement

Data shows that projects run by companies in which the government has a share account for around a third of the total area set aside for tourist resorts - either completed or under development. These projects occupy about 13 kilometers of beachfront.

The New Urban Communities Authority has the major share in New Alamein City - launched in 2018 - through the City Edge project portfolio, owned by the Egyptian government. The Housing and Development Bank is the next biggest investor in New Alamein City, where unit prices start at EGP 16.8 million.

The city, which is still under construction on a site of around 200,000 dunams, includes numerous tourist and entertainment facilities, educational institutions, and a 14-kilometer-long promenade on the Mediterranean coast. The government is also involved in four other projects with the private sector, through Hyde Park Real Estate Development and the National Bank of Egypt - both government owned, in addition to projects carried out through the Saudi Egyptian Developers (SED), according to the database covering 106 tourism projects on the north coast.

In 2020, a presidential decree transferred ownership of parts of the north-west coast to the New Urban Communities Authority, with the aim of establishing new communities there. An area of approximately 707,200 feddans was allocated to the authority.

The largest project in which the government is involved in, in partnership with businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa, is SouthMED Village, which was unveiled in 2024. The project is valued at around $21 billion. It will take up 23 million square meters and will include a large international marina for yachts and cruise ships.

The compensation offered to the residents of the village of Jemima, where the project will be built, was between three and seven thousand Egyptian pounds per square meter ($62-$145 USD). At the same time, Talaat Moustafa Holding Group announced sales of EGP 200 billion in just six days. The project is expected ultimately to bring in a total of EGP 1.6 trillion ($33.15 billion USD).

Who Is Responsible for the Environmental Impact?

An environmental impact study is a basic requirement for obtaining a licence to build tourist resorts and schemes in Egypt. The preparation of this assessment is governed by the executive regulations of Environmental Law No. 4 of 1994, as amended by Law No. 9 of 2009, and is carried out under the supervision of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA).

Tourist resorts are classified either (b) or (c) according to several criteria, most importantly the size and geographical location of the project. Small or medium-sized resorts are in category (b), while large resorts or those located in environmentally sensitive areas, such as coastlines or nature reserves, are classified as (c). These are projects with the greatest environmental impact and which, therefore, require strict conditions and in-depth reviews, according to EEAA guidelines covering the principles and procedures for environmental impact assessments. In these types of schemes, “public consultation” with local people is required to involve them, alongside the relevant authorities, at both the planning and implementation stage.

Sahar Mehanna, former head of the Fisheries Division at the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, makes clear that assessments must stipulate that the project does no damage or cause erosion to the site, and that works have no impact on marine life and the ecosystem. She says that projects must also comply with environmental law, which prohibits pollution – managing waste without disposing of it in waterways and carrying out soil and water analysis.

Sahar adds that all projects must undergo an environmental impact assessment, and no work should begin until the study confirms that the project will not harm aquatic life or marine ecosystems. She notes that the assessment must also be formally approved by a government institution.

She also explained that building work must not damage nature in the area or alter the environment - by land reclamation or extension. And it must not cause beach erosion or affect marine life and the local ecosystem.

The amendments made in 2009 to the law governing environmental impact assessment appear to be particularly noteworthy, since they transferred responsibility for carrying out such studies from the relevant government agency to the owner of the scheme. The law previously stated that “the competent administrative or licensing authority shall assess the environmental impact of the facility.” But it now requires “every natural or legal person, public or private, to submit an environmental impact assessment study for the facility.” The role of the administrative body is now to evaluate the facility owner's submission, in accordance with Articles 19 and 20 of the amendments to Environment Law No. 9 of 2009. This is consistent with the conclusion of a study by the Human and the City for Social Research in Egypt (2025).

Sahar Mehanna asserts that investors have been guilty of violations, such as putting up scaffolding that erodes the soil, or dumping waste in the sea. “People can put up scaffolding in the blink of an eye, which then becomes a fait accompli,” she says.

Environmental Risks

The building of tourist resorts and recreational areas has emerged as one of the threats to Egypt's north-west Mediterranean coastline. Coastal erosion was observed between 1990 and 2020, according to a study by researchers from Alexandria University and the National Water Research center in Egypt, which was published in 2003 in the journal Regional Studies in Marine Science.

This study, focusing on the area between Dabaa and Ras El-Hekma, found that the period between 2010 and 2020, saw the highest rate of beach erosion, with a loss of 1.12 meters per year.

An Egyptian study published in Beni Suef University’s Journal of the Faculty of Arts also showed that, between 2016 and 2023, human intervention significantly affected the “morphology” of the northern coastline between El Alamein city and Sidi Abdel Rahman.

This intervention was tied to the construction and development of tourist resorts. Some projects involved creating new beaches and reinforcing them structurally, building yacht marinas and coastal lakes and connecting them to the sea through canals, and even constructing buildings directly on the shoreline. All this caused a net beach erosion of around 662.6 meters during the eight years from 2016-2023 – the highest rate of erosion recorded in the period covered by the study – 1996-2023.

Ezz El-Din Gomaa, a forty-year-old from Matrouh who has worked as a fisherman and diver for 26 years, says that the expansion of tourism projects has had a profound impact on the marine environment, through wastewater runoff into the sea, oil and plastic waste and rubbish dumped on beaches.

He also explains that soil erosion caused by construction linked to tourism has led to layers of lime building up in the sea. This has created an environment unsuitable for species of fish like sea bass and grouper, which have, thereby, become scarce.

Gomaa pointed out that fishermen have been denied access to about 80 percent of Matrouh's beaches, because of the new tourist resorts in areas like Ras El-Hekma, Jemima, Sidi Abd al-Rahman, Sidi Heneish and Bagoush. This has caused problems for fishermen, since some resort owners alert the security forces when fishing boats come in close, leading to confiscation of equipment and boats. Gomaa has experienced this personally more than once.

Ahmed Hussein (not his real name) from Matrouh says: “We can’t do normal things anymore, like fishing, swimming, or safaris. And that’s on top of the astronomical prices they charge for services, compared to the rest of the country.” He adds: “For a year and a half, I haven’t been able to take my family to the seaside.”

The “Leila Mourad” rock is still there. But you can no longer go there for free, as anyone who wants to climb onto it must first pay to go on the beach.