Tourism Ministry to create an Independent Commission to reclassify Hotels
Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Mohammed Ben Merradi, threatened to close a number of tourist hotels, including five-star hotels for reclassification, revealing on a blueprint for re-evaluation and classification of all hotels, stressing that an independent national commission will do so away from all the pressures.
Benmeradi’s threat came on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Hotel “Ibis” and “Nouveau Hotel” in Constantine (eastern Algeria), at the presence of the General Manager of Mehri’s tourism complex.
Benmeradi said that it’s time for the reclassification of tourist hotels, in the context of a wide national campaign, and because some hotels including five star hotels and tourism companies committed legally unacceptable abuses, which do not correspond to international laws of Tourism.
The minister threatened to withdraw the licenses, reclassification and even closure of some hotels, pointing out that the National Committee will also work to raise the classification of some hotels that operate on customer service, adding that the Committee will be independent and will not be subject to any pressure to do its work in full transparency.
The minister did not provide details about the hotels that are threatened with the closure but only that some hotels that were classified as luxury hotels committed abuses on tourism laws.
As for the high prices of rooms in the Algerian hotels, compared to other countries’ hotels, the minister confirmed that they are subject to competition of demand, pointing out that the government has a new strategy on granting new investment opportunities for companies that are wishing to do so, which would reduce the prices.
As for travel agencies he asserted that there is a committee to oversee the tourist agencies to monitor its work, stressing the role of the travel agencies to attract foreign tourists to Algeria, and not only to attract Algerian tourists to other countries.