Algeria's tourism prospects
Anyone who has been lucky enough to visit some parts of what is now the largest country in Africa after the splitting of South Sudan from the North knows that Algeria is a fascinating and diverse country, four fifths of which is desert.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Algeria-s-touri...
Such locations in Le Grand Sud as Djanet with the Hoggar and Tassili mountain range provides unique opportunities to walk with guides across a varied and beautiful desert lanscape with vast pillars of rock outcrops left over from the volcanic period.
The ancient prehistoric rock paintings or rupestres of the first cattle herders and hunters can still be seen. In Tamenrasset the mountains add a further grandeur to the scene. Timmimoun to the west on the edge of the Great Erg Occidental is an ancient town with its fougara water system and large pineapple shaped water towers inspired by Sudanese architecture. It is a fascinating opportunity to spend a few nights in an original Oasis town with its ancient medina and irrigated walled gardens in the Palmeraie. The population is a rich ethnic mix of Haratine (non-Negroid Blacks), the Zénète Berbers, the Chaamba Arabs (originally from the east) and the black population origninally from Mali.
On the edge of the desert where Mehari camel trekkers still forge their way across the desert,Timmimoun is surrounded by the remains of ksours which which were small forts inhabited by warring tribes dot the lansdcape and are well worth a visit.The hotel Gourara Built by Fernand Pouillon in the 1950s is slightly dilapidated these days, but what it lacks in up-to-date comforts in makes up for in atmosphere. Looking out on the palm trees of the Oasis as it meets the sand dunes the semicircular terrace is the place to watch the sun go downand listen to the sounds of the desert and the town as darkness descends.
Algeria is rich in imposing Roman remains in Djemila, Timgad, Tipasa and Cherchell and the fishing port of Tipasa has restaurants by the seaside where the catch is served at its freshest. Algiers is a beautiful city with a fine harbour built on hills and further funds are being spent on restoring the medina which has great charm and has been in need of further rennovation.The coast has many fine beaches especially near Constantine and the mountains of the Berber Kabilye region are stunningly beautiful. Ancient historic towns such as Tlemcen and Ghardia are well worth a visit.
It is good to hear that Algeria's tourism minister Smail Mimoune say that Algeria wants to develop its tourism."We aim to receive 3.5 million tourists (per year) in three years and hope that income from the sector rises to $600 million in the same period," he told Reuters at the UNWRA regional tourism conference on the Mediterranean in Djerba. He said tha Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb poses no threat to Algeria's tourism. However with the kidnap of an italian in South Eastern Algeria in February 2011 and the recent suicide bombing of a Gendearmerie post near Tamenrasset the threat is clearly not over yet, as well as an increasing threat of kindnapping in the Sahel. The threat of terrorism has stopped Algeria from being the international tourism destination it deserves to be since the late 1950's. Many Algerian tourism ministers have talked of developing Algeria's tourism over the years but it has come tolittle because of the terrorism threat and the lack of will of the Algerian government to take action and the difficulty of obtaining tourist visas.
If this is now going to change the prize that awaits the early tourists is a still virgin and largely unspoilt uncommercialised tourism offering a great adventure. Moreover the prospect of open borders in the Arab Maghreb offers the fabulous opportunity of regional tourism with ancient sites from Chinguetti and Adrar in Mauritania through to Volubilis and Fez in Morocco, Dougga and El Djem in Tunisia, Timgard and Tipaza in Algeria and Leptus Magana and Sabratha in Libya.Algeria and the Maghreb as a whole has a great future for tourism but it has to resolve different adverse factors such as terrorism, instability and other factors such as extremist fundamentalism before tourists will return in the numbers that tourism authorities are looking for.
The ancient prehistoric rock paintings or rupestres of the first cattle herders and hunters can still be seen. In Tamenrasset the mountains add a further grandeur to the scene. Timmimoun to the west on the edge of the Great Erg Occidental is an ancient town with its fougara water system and large pineapple shaped water towers inspired by Sudanese architecture. It is a fascinating opportunity to spend a few nights in an original Oasis town with its ancient medina and irrigated walled gardens in the Palmeraie. The population is a rich ethnic mix of Haratine (non-Negroid Blacks), the Zénète Berbers, the Chaamba Arabs (originally from the east) and the black population origninally from Mali.
On the edge of the desert where Mehari camel trekkers still forge their way across the desert,Timmimoun is surrounded by the remains of ksours which which were small forts inhabited by warring tribes dot the lansdcape and are well worth a visit.The hotel Gourara Built by Fernand Pouillon in the 1950s is slightly dilapidated these days, but what it lacks in up-to-date comforts in makes up for in atmosphere. Looking out on the palm trees of the Oasis as it meets the sand dunes the semicircular terrace is the place to watch the sun go downand listen to the sounds of the desert and the town as darkness descends.
Algeria is rich in imposing Roman remains in Djemila, Timgad, Tipasa and Cherchell and the fishing port of Tipasa has restaurants by the seaside where the catch is served at its freshest. Algiers is a beautiful city with a fine harbour built on hills and further funds are being spent on restoring the medina which has great charm and has been in need of further rennovation.The coast has many fine beaches especially near Constantine and the mountains of the Berber Kabilye region are stunningly beautiful. Ancient historic towns such as Tlemcen and Ghardia are well worth a visit.
It is good to hear that Algeria's tourism minister Smail Mimoune say that Algeria wants to develop its tourism."We aim to receive 3.5 million tourists (per year) in three years and hope that income from the sector rises to $600 million in the same period," he told Reuters at the UNWRA regional tourism conference on the Mediterranean in Djerba. He said tha Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb poses no threat to Algeria's tourism. However with the kidnap of an italian in South Eastern Algeria in February 2011 and the recent suicide bombing of a Gendearmerie post near Tamenrasset the threat is clearly not over yet, as well as an increasing threat of kindnapping in the Sahel. The threat of terrorism has stopped Algeria from being the international tourism destination it deserves to be since the late 1950's. Many Algerian tourism ministers have talked of developing Algeria's tourism over the years but it has come tolittle because of the terrorism threat and the lack of will of the Algerian government to take action and the difficulty of obtaining tourist visas.
If this is now going to change the prize that awaits the early tourists is a still virgin and largely unspoilt uncommercialised tourism offering a great adventure. Moreover the prospect of open borders in the Arab Maghreb offers the fabulous opportunity of regional tourism with ancient sites from Chinguetti and Adrar in Mauritania through to Volubilis and Fez in Morocco, Dougga and El Djem in Tunisia, Timgard and Tipaza in Algeria and Leptus Magana and Sabratha in Libya.Algeria and the Maghreb as a whole has a great future for tourism but it has to resolve different adverse factors such as terrorism, instability and other factors such as extremist fundamentalism before tourists will return in the numbers that tourism authorities are looking for.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Algeria-s-touri...