The solution is not difficult - it requires the political will to be implemented and clichés and stereotypes to be broken. The Algerian tourism sector suffers from a lack of proper strategy.
A national debate of the authorities on the situation that national tourism is going through is imminent together with the discussion on the ways and means to remedy this situation that has lasted too long.
Algerian tourism has been in trouble for some time now; it goes back to more than four decades when the situation worsened due to the lack of real strategy and policy to bring it out of its state of coma.
At the beginning of each summer season, authorities talk about measures and provisions that will be taken in order to review and rethink the tourism policy. But the question that remains and that most of the specialists of this sector raise: is there really a tourist policy and strategy worthy of the name in the country?
The experts on Algerian tourism reminded several times to the public authorities the bitter paradox which consists in saying that "Algeria has oil, but it does not have any ideas to boost its tourism".
An understatement that says a lot about the reality of Algerian tourism reduced to a kind of agitation and din. Why do the public authorities not manage to conceive a tourist strategy for the height of the tourist potential that contains Algeria? Is it the ideas that are missing or is it the lack of political will? There are plenty of ideas. Algeria has specialists and experts whose contribution is invaluable. National meetings are more than ever required to save this sector which is not doing well compared to other sectors which are working as well as they can.
Serious and specific measures must be taken to put an end to a management that is purely a matter of tinkering.
Tourism has a favorable impact on the economic development of a country. This rule does not escape the insiders of this sector. Algeria needs a real economic take-off. It is however necessary that the authorities stop with the random management and the absurd practices as regards apprehensions and reflections on what concerns the future of the country and its presence on the chessboard of the nations which respect themselves.
World tourism has increased in activity by about 30% in the last twenty years and it has grown to a level representing 15% of world economic activity according to statistics from the UNDP. This informs about the potential that this sector represents on the economic level as a vector and source of job creation.
Tourism has adapted to become one of the strong links in the production chain in the field of the green economy by providing mechanisms to fit into the new approach adopted by all UN structures in the field, namely the "Sustainable Development". Algeria must imperatively assimilate the new challenges of economic development and the assets offered by the tourism sector.
The political will and the tourist culture must take back their meaning to make Algeria a real jewel of tourism and a destiny able to take the country out of its old clichés which bring more harm than good.
