North Africa

TIMGAD

tassili n'ajjer

Algeria or The People's Republic Democracy is the most captivating second- largest country in North Africa which shares its nearness to Morocco and also acts as a doorway amid Europe and Africa. It is indeed a charismatic place to explore whose history of emergence is quite attention-grabbing. Besides, Algeria also forms the superb basis of providing excessive amount of natural gas to Europe and energy exports are its mainstay. It becomes mandatory for tourists to know little bit about the geographical entirety and history of Algeria before they step into the country. Algeria has a total population of 35.4 million (UN, 2010) and its capital is Algiers. Its vicinity is sprawled over the total area of 2.4 million sq km (919,595 sq miles) and people here are accustomed of speaking in three main languages which are Arabic, French and Berber. However, Islam is the main religion of its natives and worship the lord with full dedication and respect. As far as history of Algeria is concerned, we get to know that Berbers were the main inhabitants until Arabs captured the entire North Africa in the 7th century. But they really had to strife hard in order to preserve much of their civilization. But again in the 16th century in 1830, French conquered Algeria and gave the county the repute of a �department� which actually made Algerians fight for their independence, headed by National Liberation Front and was finally succeeded in 1962. Last but not least, such political turmoils including the one created by Al-Qaeda in the Land of Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM) in 1992 also adversely affected the Algeria tourism and the country was almost disappeared from tourism map with the crucial civil of 1992. But after a decade the situation improved little bit and resulted in the coming and going of traveler's from southern Sahara region. However, even today, it is not safe for the vacationers to explore Algeria alone owing the cases related to tourist abductions of 2003 as the life taking risks have been increased since then.
Algeria is the largest country in Africa and the 10th largest country in the world in terms of total area. Located in North Africa, one of the main attractions is the Sahara, the second largest desert in the world1. Some sand dunes can reach 180 meters hauteur2,3. This state is a member of the World Tourism Organization since 1976 but tourism in Algeria is not yet in its infancy. Tourism-related income does not exceed 10% of gross domestic product, according to the report "Tourism Highlights" of the World Tourism Organization published in 2014, Algeria is the 04 th tourist destination in Africa in 2013 2.7 million tourists étrangers4, and occupies the 111th position on the international tourism scene, according to the World Council of travel and tourism Council (WTTC), based in London. The tourism sector in Algeria represents 3.9% of the volume of exports, 9.5% of the productive investment rate and 8.1% of GDP.
The tragic events of early 1990 delayed the development of infrastructure and discouraged many tourists staying there. However, the trend tends to inverser5 with a return of foreigners, especially an affinity tourism [What?] From France. It notes, for example a 20% increase of tourists between 2000 and 2005.
The main competitors are the Mediterranean countries the majority has developed strongly in this sector6 based economy.