Smail Mimoune to Echorouk: 'Algeria plans to upgrade tourism to rejuvenate national economy'

Algeria intends to boost investment in the tourism sector with the aim of attracting some 3.5 million tourists per year starting in 2015, the tourism minister Mr Smail Mimoune told Echorouk, in an bid to shift the national economy away from dependence on hydrocarbons.

• Though the country possesses unspoiled mountainous sites, a 1.200 km-long Mediterranean coastline and spectacular desert settings, foreign visitors did not exceed 2 million last year, according to the Tourism minister.

• “The Algerian authorities have ambitious plans to revive the flagging tourism sector, aiming to scale up the accommodation capacity from 90,000 beds to 160,000 beds in three years,” Mr Smail Mimoune told Echorouk adding that an overral financial package estimated at $8 billion dollars had been earmarked by the government to this effect.

• “We aim to receive 3.5 million tourists (per year) in three years and hope that income from the tourism sector hikes to $600 million in the same time-span,” he asserted.

• Tourism still makes up a tiny proportion of national income for Algeria, which earned some $70 billion from oil and gas revenues last year, compared to only $400 million from tourism, according to Mr Smail Mimoune.

• Algeria’s policy for the past few years has been to use its cash reserves to stimulate economic growth and job creation, through infrastructure investments, higher public sector wages, food subsidies and grants to promote small businesses.

• The Algerian government plans to use a combination of private and public investment to upgrade its hotel offer – including building 70 brand-new hotels in several parts of the country – and overseas promotion of its rich cultural sites and dazzling mountain resorts to attract a regular flow of visitors and foreign tourists, Mr Smail Mimoune said.

• “These plans are very realistic because the private sector in Algeria will allot $4 billion for tourism investments, including in luxury hotels, and the government has decided to invest $1 billion to upgrade existing hotels to meet the demands of modern tourists because most of the hotels in Algeria are rather old,” he added.

• “We will step up promotion overseas through the media outlets and external communications to rejuvenate this important sector of activity with the aim of diversifying the national economy”, the Tourism Minister underscored.