The SIAC/WBHO team priced the contract at £E 387 million ($63 million), ahead of a £E 445 million ($72 million) offer submitted by Lebanon's Arabian Construction Company (ACC). A third bid was submitted by a joint venture of the local Ginzaand Athens-based Consolidated Construction International Company (CCC).

US-based Millennium Hotels & Resortsin late September signed the management contract for another of the planned five-star hotels, the 120-room Coral Beach Diving Hotel, which is due to open in mid-2004. On completion of the first phase of the Port Ghalib project, the resort will include three five-star and two four-star hotels. The development also includes Egypt's only build-operate-transfer (BOT) airport, operated by Aeroports de Paris, which received its first international flights in May (MEED 9:8:03).

Egypt enjoyed a record level of tourist arrivals in August, with a high proportion of Gulf holidaymakers visiting Red Sea resorts.