Algeria seeks to attract more visitors to its historical and cultural sites and stunning natural landscapes, amid efforts to revitalize and expand the tourism sector.
The largest country in Africa includes Islamic and Roman sites, beaches and mountains, just one hour by plane from Europe, and charming desert landscapes where visitors can sleep in the sand dunes, immerse themselves in a starry sky, and ride camels in the company of Tuareg Bedouins.
In 2023, Algeria hosted only 3.3 million tourists, according to the Ministry of Tourism, and about 1.2 million of these were Algerian expatriates who returned to visit their families.
The decline in the number of travelers to Algeria indicates this country’s neglect of the tourism sector, which is seen as an untapped treasure.
With the growth of oil and gas revenues in Algeria in the 1960s and 1970s, successive governments lost interest in developing mass tourism activities. Then a slide into political conflict in the 1990s pushed the country away from that path.
Analysts say that as the security situation improves and to attract tourists, Algeria needs:
- Addressing the inflexible visa regime.
- Improving transportation lines.
- Granting concessions to local and foreign private sector investors to enable tourism to flourish.
Director General of the National Tourism Office, Saliha Nasser Bey, presented ambitious plans to attract 12 million tourists by 2030.
She said during Algiers’ hosting of the International Tourism and Travel Salon from May 30 to June 2, “In its strategy, Algeria seeks to attract 12 million tourists by 2030. For this purpose, we, as the tourism and traditional industry sector, seek to encourage investment and provide facilities to investors.” And building tourist and hotel facilities, rehabilitating and modernizing hotels.”
As part of its efforts to develop the tourism sector, Algeria is:
- Planning to build hotels, restructuring and modernizing existing hotels.
- The Ministry of Tourism said that about 2,000 tourism projects have been approved so far, 800 of which are under construction.
- The state is implementing a comprehensive restoration project for 249 historical sites with the aim of attracting investors and tourists. Work has been completed on approximately 70 sites so far, while restoration plans for an additional 50 sites are currently being implemented, which also includes site expansions.
Visitors – including French tourist Patrick Lobo (70 years old) – stress the need to develop infrastructure to fully benefit from Algeria’s tourism potential.
“It is clear that there is a lot of tourism potential, and a lot of work needs to be done to attract us,” Lobo says. “There is a real desire to welcome us, and the welcome is always very warm.”
According to the Statista website, which collects data, the Algerian tourism and travel sector provided 543,500 job opportunities in the country in 2021.
