Tourism Development in Algeria and the Horizon 2025 Plan

Abstract

Abstract Despite Algeria’s strategic geographical location as a portal to Africa from Europe and the continuous attempts to reform its tourism sector, this postcolonial country has failed to become a tourism hub in the Mediterranean area. In Algeria, the year 2008 witnessed the birth of a tourism development plan named ‘Horizon 2025’, projecting strategies and goals to be achieved by 2025. However, the plan did not achieve its expected results because of various socio-political and external issues such as the country’s recent political instability and the global Covid-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, Algeria’s domestic market has witnessed noticeable growth in the last 20 years, especially during the global pandemic. The present case study reflects on the development of the Horizon 2025 plan and its contribution to the rebranding of Algeria as a destination and the consequential outcomes that helped the growth of its domestic tourism market. Through the case study, we showcase the efforts made to build Algeria as an attractive destination and how Covid-19 challenged the plan’s forecasted goals while paving the way for the development and promotion of domestic tourism. Information The case study is the authors’ collaborative effort, adapted from the PhD thesis of Imene El Azzaoui © Imene El Azzaoui 2022