The Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Hacène Mermouri, has been quoted by the Oxford Business Group (OBG), an international consulting firm, saying that 1,812 new hotel infrastructure projects have been approved by the Ministry. This series of projects is expected to increase the capacity to 240,000 beds, in contrast to the current 100,000, and create 99,000 jobs.

582 of the approved projects are already under construction, with an additional 75,300 beds at hand and the creation of about 36,000 direct jobs, according to Mr. Mermouri. All in all, 110 projects are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The announcement of the Ministry represents a considerable advance for the tourism in Algeria, the new beds making it possible not only to strengthen the general reception capacity but also to lower prices and diversify the hotel offering.

Low hotel capacity has long been a major obstacle to the development of the sector. According to estimates published in the report “Competitiveness in the tourism and travel sector 2017” of the Global Economic Forum, Algeria has 0.1 hotel room per 100 inhabitants, which placed it in this category on the 111th place out of 136 countries.

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