How Algeria wants to attract tourists to the Sahara

Algeria wants to promote tourism in the Sahara.

The Ministry of the Interior has in fact just announced that tourists visiting the Algerian Sahara would be exempt from a prior visa.

This will be issued upon arrival in the country, for example at the airport.

Please note: this measure concerns only tourists arriving in the territory as part of stays organized by "

 ".

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This relaxation "

 ", the ministry specified in a press release.

And for good reason: the steps to obtain an Algerian visa are tedious, which does not help the country to attract tourists.

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However, Algeria is far from being a leading tourist destination, unlike its neighbors in the Maghreb, Morocco and Tunisia.

And this, in spite of an enormous potential.

It attracts only about two million tourists per year on average, half of whom are Algerians residing abroad.

But a national tourism strategy has been put in place in recent years to develop this sector.

Sea and mountain

Algeria has many assets likely to attract tourists with 1,200 kilometers of coastline, endless mountain ranges and views in impregnable sites.

Its Sahara, the first region concerned by the granting of visas on arrival, is among the largest deserts in the world, where the national cultural park of Tassili is located, which extends over 138,000 km².

Located in the governorate of Djanet, it is considered a real open-air museum containing rock engravings and paintings, sand dunes, mountainous reliefs, bodies of water, green spaces, and a rich fauna, in particular the avifauna.

A direct flight between Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and Djanet was made on December 18, with the first 64 French travelers on board, marking the resumption of this air link after twelve years of consecutive suspension following the hiker's assassination. Frenchman Hervé Gourdel in Kabylie by a jihadist group.