- Title: ALGERIA: Algeria revamps image in bid to revive its tourism industry
- Date: 3rd December 2009
- Summary: VARIOUS OF TRAVEL AGENCY STANDS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE VISITING STANDS YOUNG WOMAN WEARING TRADITIONAL DRESS VARIOUS OF THE STANDS (SOUNDBITE) (French) RAYANE FEZOUIN, DIRECTOR OF "JADE TRAVEL" SAYING: "I think that we have an advantage in that our country hasn't been exposed to mass tourism and doesn't conjure up a tourism cliche and so we can provide an authentic tourism, a real tourism. It's enough for us to invest a small amount to provide the comfort and to use the authentic image. We have a huge country which has a lot of colours, the blues of the north, greys in the dunes and the yellows. When you go from the north to the south, you pass through many colours. It is a vast country. The products and materials are there, you just have to know how to use them. (But) we also have a weak point which is our image; actually, we don't know how to sell the image of Algeria at the moment. We are selling it really badly." VARIOUS OF TRAVEL AGENCY STANDS
- Embargoed: 18th December 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Algeria
- Country: Algeria
- Topics: Industry
- Reuters ID: LVA5C5BHXO5TDY8BJUWT71B49HJG
- Story Text: The main message at Algeria's 10th annual tourism show this year was that the country is an emerging tourist destination, and that the idea that it is overshadowed by extremist violence is out of date.
Oil and gas producer Algeria has thousands of kilometres of Mediterranean beaches and vast tracts of Sahara desert wilderness, but it attracts far fewer tourists than smaller neighbours Morocco and Tunisia.
"What we'd like to do fundamentally is to meet the demands of national tourism because looking ahead to 2025, there will be 11 million Algerian tourists, so there's a potential market which needs to be satisfied. But of course, tourism includes markets from which other countries. To that end, we want to recover the natural markets which we had in the past. We have to recouperate this from the Mediterranean region, at our pace and within our modest capacity. We are a tourism that's emerging, that's under construction with a lot of promise. We have a strategy and a coherent vision and we are rolling it out at our own pace," said Algeria's Minister of Tourism, Cherif Rahmani.
A conflict between government forces and Islamist militants that, according to some estimates killed 200,000 people, has now been reduced to a few sporadic attacks. Its legacy though is still discouraging many people from visiting.
"The question of terrorism is a universal question. I am talking about the planet, the land, and the entire world. In these times of ours, we have to adapt and change our position, as well as how we are able to decrease the risks. It's not the only risk; we also have the climatic risk, the food risk, the energy risk and the financial and economic risks," added Rahmani.
Algeria last year attracted 1.7 million tourists, according to official figures. Eight million people visited Morocco in 2008, while Tunisia attracted seven million tourists.
"All the European countries have a vision which is set by the internet site of the Quai d'Orsay (French Foreign Office). And, the Quai d'Orsay hasn't changed its World Travel Warning for the last 10 years and that poses a problem. When we meet people in the different shows in Paris, or Berlin, or the World Travel Market in London, we try to explain to this to our new partners especially. We invite them to visit Algiers and when they come they see that Algeria is very different from what they've read in the newspapers or what they see on certain websites," explained Bachir Djeribi, a director of the Adventure Club Travel Agency and Chairman of the National Union of Travel Agencies.
Earlier this year the government announced a package of tax breaks, low-interest loans and subsidised land to try to encourage investment in new hotels and resorts.
"We have to innovate in our tourism products to attract more people and provide a high quality of service," added Djeribi who also predicted that tourist numbers would be up by 30 or 40 percent this season.
An International Monetary Fund report on Algeria last month said the fall in oil prices caused by the global downturn "underscores the need to diversify the economy, including a reduction in the fiscal dependence on hydrocarbon resources."
"I think that we have an advantage in that our country hasn't been exposed to mass tourism and doesn't conjure up a tourism cliche and so we can provide an authentic tourism, a real tourism. It's enough for us to invest a small amount to provide the comfort and to use the authentic image. We have a huge country which has a lot of colours, the blues of the north, greys in the dunes and the yellows. When you go from the north to the south, you pass through many colours. It is a vast country. The products and materials are there, you just have to know how to use them. (But) we also have a weak point which is our image; actually, we don't know how to sell the image of Algeria at the moment. We are selling it really badly," said Rayane Fezouin, director of 'Jade Travel'.
Algeria is keen to develop its tourism industry to ease unemployment and reduce its economy's dependence on exports of oil and gas. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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