Perspectives of Tourism Development in Algeria

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. Introduction
1.1 Aim and methods
1.2 Basic literature review
1.3 Main concepts and definitions

CHAPTER II. General determinant for tourism development
2.1. External Factors in tourism development
2.1.1. Geographical and geopolitical situation
2.1.2. International traffic of growing tourism and trends on market
2.2. Internal
2.2.1. Geographical site of Algeria
2.2.2. Political system and socio-economic background
2.2.3. History
2.2.4. Culture

CHAPTER III. Analysis of tourism resources of the country
3.1. Natural attractions
3.1.1. Landscapes
3.1.2. Protected areas and monuments
3.1.3. Wildlife of Algeria
3.2. Cultural attractions
3.2.1. Tangible heritage
3.2.2. Intangible heritage

CHAPTER IV. Actual state of tourism development
4.1. Organization of tourism
4.1.1. Structures
4.1.2. Spatial organization
4.2. Tourism infrastructure
4.3. Tourism traffic statistics
4.4 The Opinion of inhabitant based on survey in tourism development perspectives

CHAPTER V. Perspectives for tourism development in Algeria
5.1. General evaluation
5.2. Existing and potential tourism products

5.3. Proposed strategy for future

CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY
List of Tables
List of Figures

APPENDIX 1. SURVEY

PREFACE

We are in an age of rapid communication. It is a development that we can reach in a few minutes by means of communication instead of anywhere we think that the world will never be reached. The world has become a small village with a dramatic development. No matter where in the world we are, we can now see and learn about the events happening anywhere, thanks to the communication tools. Here are the people, institutions, organizations and even countries that want to consider such an important advantage; they use communication tools and communication techniques to make use of tourism, which is one of them.

This book was prepared specifically to provide information on Perspective of Tourism Development in Algeria. I would like to thank my teachers, my family and friends for helping me from time to time in preparing this book.

July 2017 Umran Aslan

STRESZCZENIE

Poniższa praca ma doprowadzić Algierię do ważnego miejsca wzrównoważonej turystyce wprzyszłości. Badanie dotyczy ogólnie Algierii i wyjaśnia, jak należy rozwijać regiony. Opracowując koncepcje zarządzania, autor wyjaśnia, którą drogę rozwoju turystyki wyjaśnił, w jaki sposób należy podążać za Algierią.

Kiedy spojrzymy na starą historię Algierii, jest to kraj, wktórym mieszka wiele cywilizacji. Z drugiej strony jest to największy kraj Afryki pod względem powierzchni, a to dlatego, że jest duże. Patrząc na sąsiednie kraje Maroko i Tunezję, widzimy, że turystyka rośnie wpoważnych ilościach. Jednak wAlgierii niewielu pracuje wimię turystyki. Wtej pracy wyjaśniono, jak należy postępować zgodnie z kierownictwem wcelu zwiększenia inwestycji turystycznych.

Algieria jest krajem bardzo bogatym pod względem turystyki, ale ma niewielką wiedzę na temat korzystania z tych zasobów. Pustynia przybrzeżna i Sahara na Algierii ma tak znakomity potencjał turystyczny. Dzięki tym długoterminowym planom wprzyszłości mogą stać się nieodzownym celem zrównoważonej turystyki. Wreszcie widzimy, co myśleli Lokalni o rozwoju turystyki Algierii z badaniem przeprowadzonym wmieście Algier.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

The thesis shall focus on the significant determinations of the tourism development in Algeria. Algeria is known as the sovereign state in the North Africa. The prominent nature of the country and its regional perspectives attracts the tourists to have a visit to the country. The thesis specifies the main factors of the tourism development. We may notice in the first chapter as indispensable factors including the external and internal factors, simultaneously the social economic factors as the matter of the fact that impacts on the development and the determination of the tourism in Algeria.

I tried to response this question in my master thesis - what kind of potential might be available for the development of tourism perspectives in Algeria. It is possible to find more adequate answer for this question in chapter 5. The main focus of my master thesis is cultural values, natural values and tourism infrastructure of Algeria. ''Sightseeing values'' were reserved for most significant part in thesis as it is an important topic. Here, it is possible to obtain more information about UNESCO list of Algeria, and also other prominent historical monuments. Additionally, it is likely to get more vital information about natural principles of Algeria and its part in tourism.

Algeria succeeds to capably overcome the problems and positively to create a lawful, secular state and a civil society. At present, Algeria is a member of international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Islamic Conference, the Mediterranean Sea Economic Cooperation (MSEC), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), and is actively cooperating with the African Union, and other organizations.

In general the main objective of the master thesis is the development tourism in Algeria. Here the history and geography of Algeria is given together with a broad knowledge of the archaeological and architecture monuments. The territory of the country has a network of rivers, land and wildlife. A country with rich nature is an interesting topic for the master's thesis.

Tourism infrastructure has a great importance for the development of tourism. This infrastructure consists of accommodation, gastronomy, transportation and supporting base of tourism. In detail, the tourism infrastructure is the essential of tourism and for this reason this

chapter covers the widest part of the master thesis. In the tourism infrastructure it has been analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of hotels and hotel types of enterprises, restaurants and other catering services and of all kind of transportation system.

Furthermore, the main advantages are specified on the paper as the interest of the foreign investors and their business visits and the flexibility of the working shifts and the retirement periods and the pensions increases the awareness of the tourism opportunities.

Simultaneously the paper analyses the impact of the internal factors by referring to the three significant areas including the natural resources, cultural resources as well the tourism infrastructure resources. The thesis shall also analyse the cultural and historical areas of the Algerian tourism sectors. The main resources shall be placed on the thesis as the resources of the Algerian tourism and where the main resources are deriving from. It is significant to mention the natural attractions the sightseeing of the deserts such as Sahara, which gives a huge impression to the foreigners.

On the last chapter of the thesis, we shall specify the actual status of the tourism development in Algeria. Significantly, the research will prove by emphasising the SWOT analysis and touching upon the main advantages and the disadvantages of the research. The biggest problem for the country's tourism industry, characterised by the instability and insecurity of the constant threat of violence.

I wanted to convey to readers the culture, geography and history of Algeria. I also added some interesting material about the natural resources, historical monument and tourism potential of Algeria in my thesis.

The crucial conclusion of the research will be summarised by the survey where I shall emphasise the specified questionaries’ and the feedbacks of the individuals

1.1 Aim and methods.

The tourism quarter in Algeria is in a paradox scenario; on one hand, we are aware of a deficit in lodging potential, in advertising and marketing, a lack of expertise in service and restaurant and so forth. Alternatively, we find an attractive image and shining touristic potentials and capacities. This situation may additionally explain the Algerian poor role inside the listing of the fine-targeted locations for tourism in North Africa and usually in the African continent.

At the same time, since the Algerian economy was based mainly on the development of the oil and gas sector, the authorities paid insufficient attention to the rise of the tourism sector and the transformation of tourism into a dynamically developing industry capable of perceiving modern technologies and producing qualitatively new services and this research and survey show how economy and politic of Algeria effects on tourism development and potential.

Today, tourism has many definitions. Travel and tourism are the world’s largest industry. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon, which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. Tourism almost assumes the most important role in the development of a region. !If a region has tourism development, the following features should exist for that region.

1. General economic development
2. Policy supporting tourism development
3. It is chosen as holiday and investment area.
4. High quality of the service provided
5. Proper education of local people

And of course, we can add much more titles like these.

Algeria, as well as the neighbouring countries of the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia and Libya), have an important potential for the development of tourism in natural and historical sites.

The main aim of this thesis is to evaluate Algeria perspectives for future tourism development while having in mind its sustainability.

To achieve this purpose, the following questions will be asked to answer.

- What are the features of tourism across Algeria?
- What is the Algerian government’s tourism policy?
- How is the perspective of local people towards tourism development?
- What is the role of the private sector in environmental sustainability in tourism?
- How the government, the investor and the local people should act together in tourism development?^[1]

Accordingly, the thesis draws on economics, environmental theory, social theory, politics, geography, and international relations. Inevitably, this breadth of analysis will mean that a number of relevant aspects are not examined in depth and do not necessarily cover the complexity of the matters under discussion. The author hopes, however, that the thesis will serve as a pointer to further research and study on the subject.

1.2 Basic literature review

In this thesis the bibliography used is generally based on the resources from books and journals in different languages.^[2]

Because of the importance of tourism in the economy and tourism for economic growth and the government hopes lead to the development of literature to address an important issue. As a result, tourism development and perspective are the absolute value of the share of tourism and has many publications on the contribution of a state tourism development and management (Natenja & Flatzhe, 1999; Blade and Altinary, 2003; Evensen, 2001; Sharzad, 2001; WTTC, 2006). In addition, to deal with measuring the impact of tourism on the economy, there are also a number of articles to offer different methodologies. A leading study on the impact of tourism and economic development, has been compiled by Soukiazis Proenca (2005). They found that the location of capacities in the tourism sector provides for an increase in average per capita income growth. Tourism is increasing the rate of convergence of per capita income in Algeria. Lanz and Pigliar (1999) using a different technique, examines the impact of the experience of the country's tourism industry. According to Kercher B., towards a taxonomy of tourism products, in: Tourism Management growth based on economic growth. The author’s country of the labour force size with the corresponding comparative advantage based on the development of natural resources in tourism suggests that it is likely to grow faster than those that specialize in manufacturing and industry.

A common feature of the above empirical study, they studied the relationship between tourism and economic growth through econometric models - national or interregional data. All the things that studied, to revive tourism. Economic growth in a positive way, in this context, the purpose of this document, analysing the tourism development and perspective from Algeria are accepted.

1.3 Main concepts and definitions.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) is the principal organisation liable for the improvement of identical tourism definitions. This organisation states that tourism is well-defined by “the set of events of an individual traveling to a place outside his or her common environment for at least one night, but less than a year, and whose main persistence of tourism is other than the exercise of an activity compensated from within the place visited^[3] ”. "The implementation of paid activity from the visited place" does not include temporary labour migration paid by the economic agent residing in the visited place.

Tourism Management in the chosen area is generally divided into the following categories (source: http://www2.unwto.org/content/who-we-are-0 :)

1. Domestic Tourism: residents of a country visiting destinations in the own country
2. Inbound Tourism: visits to a country by non-residents.
3. Outbound Tourism: residents of a country visiting destinations in other countries.
4. Internal Tourism: the combination of domestic tourism and inbound tourism,
5. National Tourism: the combination of domestic and outbound tourism.
6. International Tourism: the combination of inbound and outbound tourism.

The study of literature on the tourism products and perspective in the area, the effects and sustainable development of tourism are presented in this research. The last main consists of four main parts that one of them is about all tourism infrastructure in the country. It was stated below as:

1. Analysis of tourism infrastructure in Algeria
2. Nature-based forms of tourism situation in Algeria
3. Impacts of tourism in protected areas
4. Summary as SWOT analysis

The wireframe, 1960s and 1970s at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in our testing approach was adopted by Albert Humphrey. Improved for the business world and based on data obtained from the list of Fortune 500 companies, SWOT analysis was adopted by all types of organizations to help make decisions.

As the definition used in this thesis, the SWOT analysis used to estimate tourism development in the Algeria considers four elements:

Strengths - Successful internal qualities and resources to support the conclusion.

Weaknesses - internal resources, employees absorb resources from a successful result. Opportunities - external factors can benefit or benefit from the project.

Threats are external factors that can throw a project at risk.

Once the SWOT factors have been identified by the decision-makers that the project objectives or it is worth following and what it takes to be successful, it should be able to determine better.^[4]

CHAPTER II. GENERAL DETERMINANT FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

There is a concept for the development of tourism in order to reflect a number of objectives in this field that makes balanced indicators and constant growth of tourism resources. Additionally, in the tourism sector to improve efficiency and tourism is the most appropriate way is to ensure the use of productive resources. Sustainable tourism is a point of convergence between the visitor and the owner of the needs of the region. In addition, it protects the realities of the city and offers ecological attractions.

Algeria as well as the neighbouring countries of the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia and Libya) have an important potential for the development of tourism in natural and historical sites. The difference between its neighbours is that it is widely used in the current potential in countries such as Morocco and Tunisia while tourism is extremely inadequate in Algeria, foreign exchange is a major source.^[5]

At the same time, the development of tourism in Algeria has become increasingly important in recent years. As is known, the oil and gas sector, which is the most important source of monetary and financial savings, has been the basis of the country's economic development strategy for all past years. Export of hydrocarbons, despite the significant development of manufacturing, gives the country up to 95% of all foreign currency earnings (up to 12 billion dollars a year). Meanwhile, the oil resources of Algeria are not unlimited. They are gradually decreasing, at the current rates of their production, according to experts, the projected life of oil resources in the early 90s was 30 years, and by the beginning of the 21st century, it was 19.8 years. As for natural gas, at current rates of extraction of available reserves of blue fuel should be enough for 50.7 years. This circumstance, naturally, cannot but cause concern of the Algerian authorities and in recent years the development of the tourism sector as one of the important alternative sources of foreign exchange earnings has caused growing interest in government circles.^[6]

It is clear that the tourist sector of Algeria is in a state of stagnation, and there are several reasons. Among the most important of them are: lack of financial resources with the beginning of a large-scale restructuring of economic structures and economic reform, a lack of political will on the part of the country's leadership to change attitudes towards the sector and turn it towards the country's needs, as well as ongoing internal instability as a result of armed confrontation between the authorities and Islamic extremists, which, naturally, scares off potential tourists.

2.1 External Factors in tourism development

External (exogenous) factors affect tourism through demographic and social changes in Algeria. This group includes: the age of the population, the increase in the number of working women and the change in the income for each family, the growth in the proportion of single people, the trend towards later marriage and family formation, the increase in the number of childless couples in the population, business trips and more flexible working hours, earlier retirement, increased awareness of tourism opportunities. Among the external factors affecting tourism in Algeria, are also economic and financial factors:^[7]

[...]

^[1] http://www2.unwto.org/content/who-we-are-0

^[2] Mohammed Amine Mekacher ,Le developpement touristique durable en Algerie, exemple de la region saharienne de Tamanrasset, Fra-Ga publishing 2014

^[3] Leiper, N. (1979). The Framework of Tourism. Towards a definition of Tourism, Tourist and the Touristic Industry. Annals of Tourism Research, Oct/Dec. 79, 390-407.

^[4] https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC 05.htm

^[5] Dernoi L.A., 1981, «Alternative tourism : towards a new style in north-south relations)), International Journal 01Tourism Management, 2, pp. 253-264

^[6] Clarke, J., 2002, «A synthesis of activity towards the implementation of sustainable tourism: ecotourism in a different context», International Journal 01Sustainable Development, vol. 5, n03, pp. 232-250.

^[7] Saadoun, B. (2003). Role of The Tourism Sector in the Development of Traditional Crafts industry in Algeria. The International Forum on the Reality and the Future of Traditional Handicraft Industry in Algeria. Bechar: The House of Culture. The 20th December -21st December, 2003