Algeria woos investors to unlock tourism potential

Algeria announced on Monday it was slashing taxes on tourism projects to persuade investors that the country, emerging from years of violence, could become a hot new holiday destination. Algeria has thousands of kilometers (miles) of Mediterranean coastline a short flight from Europe and vast tracts of Saharan desert wilderness -- yet only a trickle of foreign tourists. Attacks by Islamist militants, though dramatically reduced in the past few years, have kept many visitors away, along with a lack of investment that has left oil-producing Algeria with a shortage of high-quality restaurants, resorts and hotels.

Tourism and Environment Minister Cherif Rahmani unveiled reforms that included tax cuts for tourist firms, low-interest bank loans for tourism investments, reduced customs tariffs, subsidised land and streamlined bureaucratic procedures. "Of course we are aware that we are not yet at a world-class level, but we are in the process, little by little, of building Algeria as a destination," he told a conference. "We are going to put ourselves in a competitive position in relation to our neighbors, in terms of Algeria's attractiveness," he said.

Despite increases in tourist numbers in the past few years, Algeria lags far behind neighboring Tunisia and Morocco. Eight million people visited Morocco in 2008, while Tunisia recorded 7 million tourists. The two countries have attracted millions of dollars in foreign tourism investment, much of it from Europe and the Gulf states. Algerian government figures show that in 2006, the latest year for which data was available, there were 1.64 million tourists. Only 29 percent were foreigners, while the rest were Algerian emigres visiting relatives.

Algeria's government is keen to diversify its economy away from oil and gas, which accounts for 97 percent of its exports. It also wants to create jobs -- 7 out of 10 people under the age of 30 are unemployed.

Reuters

Egypt-Russia trade grows 50% in 2007 to $2.1 bln

Egyptian-Russian trade grew 50% year on year in 2007 to $2.1 billion, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Sunday. The Egyptian president made this statement on the eve of his visit to Russia, which will take place on March 24-25.

"Visits at the highest level gave a strong impetus to bilateral cooperation," Mubarak said in an interview with RIA Novosti. According to the Egyptian president, 1.5 million Russians visited Egypt last year, allowing Russia to take the first place in terms of the number of tourists visiting the North African country.

"There are big opportunities for expanding cooperation in the sphere of trade, investment, energy and tourism between our countries," Mubarak said. During his visit to Russia, the Egyptian president is expected to sign a framework agreement on bilateral cooperation in the civilian nuclear energy sector. According to Egyptian officials, the U.S. is pressurizing Egypt to place its nuclear program under U.S. control to protect the security of Israel.

Ria Novosti

Morocco’s tourism booming

Morocco’s tourism sector is thriving as the government announced that the number of tourists visiting the kingdom grew 10 percent in the first seven months of 2007.

Around 4.3 million tourists visited Morocco with over 1 million tourists in July alone. The French (1.7 million) form the largest number of foreign visitors, followed by visitors from Spain (795,000), Belgium (285,000), the UK (261,000), the Netherlands (211,000), Germany (182,000), and Italy (164,000).

King Mohammed VI is personally involved in meetings with foreign investors, and spearheading the drive to make the kingdom one of the world’s favourite tourist destinations. Tourism is Morocco’s biggest source of foreign currency and quintessential to helping reduce unemployment and eradicate poverty in the North African country.

The government has developed an ambitious strategy, dubbed "Vision 2010", aimed at attracting 10 million tourists annually by 2010. Revenue from tourism increased 29 percent to 52.9 billion dirhams ($6.56 billion) in 2006, helping oil-importing Morocco cope with high world oil prices.

MEDSTAT II meeting

General Directors of the Mediterranean Partner Countries' National Statistics Institutes were in Brussels on September 6-7, 2007 at the invitation of EuropeAid and Eurostat for the first Partnership Group Meeting organised within the framework of the MEDSTAT II regional programme.

The aim of the meeting was to bring together all those involved in the project for a frank discussion about the results achieved so far and future challenges, as well as to start a dialogue on future statistical cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Euro-Mediterranean statistical cooperation began in 1996 through the regional programme MEDSTAT. Ten years later (January 2006), MEDSTAT II, a three-year, €30 million programme, was launched with ten partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey). It deals with statistics in nine thematic sectors (Trade, National Accounts, Social Statistics, Energy, Agriculture, Environment, Tourism, transport and Migration) and three horizontal sectors (Training, Information System and Dissemination). The programme’s main objective is to strengthen the capacity of the partner countries’ National Statistics Institutes and each country’s own National Statistical System.

Conservation of ancient sites

The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi unveiled an ambitious plan on Monday to protect ancient Greek ruins, conserve the country's pristine Mediterranean coastline and draw eco-tourists to this former pariah state.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi's plan is part of an attempt to dramatically change the image of Libya — to an ecologically friendly tourist destination — at a time when the country is nearing its long-sought political goal: getting into the West's good graces.

The younger Gadhafi announced the project at a lavish ceremony inside a 2,200-year-old Greek gymnasium in the ruins of the ancient city of Cyrene, one of the country's largely untouched and unvisited antiquity sites that Libya hopes will pull in foreigners.

"Our intention is to build a complete and sustainable social, cultural, economic and environmental system in which the needs of the present allow for the needs of future generations," said Gadhafi, standing on the gymnasium's open plaza surrounded by tall, beige-colored columns.

"Its time now to join developed countries and make a statement that we are also concerned about the environment and culture," Gadhafi, who is known in Libya as "The Engineer," told reporters after the ceremony.

Touted as a reformer, 36-year-old Gadhafi has increasingly been sharing his father's spotlight and reaching out the West to soften Libya's image and return it to the international mainstream. He has no official government post, but many see him as the man most likely to take power in the North African country when his 65-year-old father steps down or dies. After spending decades as the United States' sworn enemy, Libya is embarking on a political and economic change of heart.

IHT

Saidia tourism projects

Le Jardin de Fleur

When a young 43 year old king unveils to the world his ambitious strategy to boost tourist arrivals to his country from 4.4 million in 2001 to 10 million by 2010 thus creating 600,000 new jobs and forming 20% of the nation’s GDP, the last thing that king wants is egg on his face. He’s going to pull out all the stops to steer the vision to fruition. This describes exactly the challenge facing King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

The mega coastal resorts under the moniker ‘Plan Azur’ are the glue holding his vision together. These six facility-packed holiday spots will spearhead the growth and the Government has implemented certain ‘touristic’ laws which guarantee that failure is not an option. Mediterrania Saïdia, home to Le Jardin de Fleur, is the flagship Plan Azur resort, heavily in the throes of construction and the only one of the six destined for the coveted Mediterranean coastline. The 11 Le Jardin de Fleur resorts-within-a-resort, ranging from spacious apartments to grandiose villas, provide a textbook example of how King Mohammed’s touristic laws safeguard his country’s future and in turn, each individual purchaser’s investment.

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Millions of Britons head overseas

Millions of Britons are heading abroad in search of summer sunshine and a reprieve from the downpours at home.
Travel agents say bookings for the Mediterranean are up at least 100 per cent on last year and popular sun spots such as Majorca and Ibiza are reported to be virtually full. The sudden surge in bookings kicked off last month, which set a new record for rainfall in England. Before that, travel experts had been predicting this year would be the first summer when green concerns would persuade more holidaymakers to give up their foreign flights and stay in Britain.

Agents said that with no sign of a break in the weather, the desire to see some sun now ranked above worries about the environment. Matthew Flint, sales director at Croydon-based Direct Line Holidays, said: "Last week we were 124 per cent up on last year. Very rarely have we ever known the weather to have such a direct effect on holiday bookings but in my 41 years this is the first time I have known a summer like this."

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