Can tourism in Algeria remain authentic and sustainable?
The news website "Twala" met with several tourism stakeholders in Algeria. While the sector is less developed than in its Maghreb neighbors, activity there is increasingly dynamic. It remains to be seen whether the country will be able to resist the lure of mass tourism and preserve its uniqueness.
Located in a lovely Haussmannian building, across from the Grande Poste, Dar Kahina is a welcome addition to the short list of guesthouses in Algiers. The host is Kahina, as the house's name suggests. After many years spent in France, Kahina decided to bring her thirty-five years of tourism expertise back home. To do this, she had the crazy idea of renting an apartment and completely renovating it into a guesthouse.
“Everyone thought I was crazy. It was an apartment that was used as an office. It was almost abandoned since it wasn't inhabited. I redid everything: the painting, the electricity, the plumbing. I made changes by installing bathrooms, I made partitions to create additional bedrooms. Today, there are six bedrooms, including mine. I'm there to host, because that's the very principle of a guesthouse,” Kahina tells Twala .
Kahina owns a travel agency in France. She plans trips for her clients before welcoming them to her home in Algiers.
“The idea of a guesthouse had been on my mind for a while. At first, I wasn't necessarily thinking about Algeria, but then I thought: why go anywhere else when I was starting to bring tourists to Algeria? Why not bring back everything I've learned over the past 35 years to my country? We also have a very beautiful country and the means to do great things,” she adds.
When you enter the Kahina house, you're entering a gateway to Algerian craftsmanship. From the tapestries to the copper plates, the apartment is entirely decorated with Algerian creations.
“I don't just offer a guesthouse, but a complete experience. I've only worked with artisans, precisely so I can say: when you go to Tipaza, you can stop by Bouharoun and buy souvenirs there,” she says enthusiastically.
“It's also about employing the people I've worked with. We need to create an ecosystem where everyone helps each other. Even the breakfast I serve has an Algerian touch; it's homemade. My sister-in-law prepares everything.”
For Kahina, crafts are a key element in developing tourism in Algeria and, above all, making it profitable. But despite the progress made, the entrepreneur points to a gap that still needs to be made up.
“If I compare it to other countries, we're still a long way off. For example, I took tourists to a copper craftsman at Martyrs' Square. They wanted to buy lots of things, but the lack of distribution networks put them off. They said to me, 'What are we going to do with our luggage and large copper plates?' These are all little things that we'll have to think about developing," she adds.
According to the Director General of the National Tourism Office (ONAT), Saliha Nacer Bey, 3,547,000 tourists – 2,454,000 foreigners and 1,093,000 Algerians living abroad – visited Algeria in 2024. Speaking during this month of April on the airwaves of Radio Chaîne I, the Director of ONAT communicated a
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