Tourism Ministry hasn’t received any foreign investment request since start of the year!

The Algerian Government has decided to grant operating licenses for the running of 4 and 5 star-category hotels from the public sector and whose number is estimated at 20. These big hotels will be open to foreign investment in accordance with the country’s 51/49 investment rule.

The government’s move is designed to cope urgently with the negative fallout of the drastic oil price slump affecting the national economy by notably hiking the number of foreign tourists visiting Algeria and whose number is expected to reach over 3.5 million by the end of the year.

Informed sources told “Echorouk” that such operating licenses were granted as part of a fresh investment drive to include such major world hotel complexes as Radisson Blue, Accor, Western, and Meridien.

Meanwhile, the Director of investment at the Ministry of urban development, tourism and handicraft, Mohammed Sofiane Zoubir, has affirmed that no request for foreign investment in Algeria has been registered since the beginning of the year 2015.

He attributed this hurdle to the refusal of foreign investors to engage in the intricate search for viable real-estate in Algeria with the aim of constructing new luxury hotels in the country preferring to submit applications for investment in the field of hotel management instead.

The official further stated that the government has worked out a tourism-oriented program designed to attract to Algeria more than 3.5 million tourists by the end of 2015 versus only 2.7 million tourists in 2014.

He added that 16 brand-n