Towards sustainable tourism panning in Bou Saâda, Algeria

Abstract

The city of Bou Sa?da is one of the Algerian cities that have diverse tourism resources, but it has not been adopted as a premier tourist spot nor has it benefited from the tourism programs established within the national strategy for sustainable tourism development for Horizons 2030, which made the tourism weak compared to other Algerian regions that have similar tourism elements. This study aims to evaluate the existing tourism strategy to address the shortcomings and provide solutions by focusing on four variables: tourist destination, tourism industry, the tourist market, and actors in tourism. We have relied on the following techniques: SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the tourism sector in Bou Sa?da, MCDA Analysis using AHP for spatial planning for the future tourism industry, and a questionnaire form distributed to the residents, the tourists and the experts to take their suggestions and use them in guiding the tourism planning process. The results of the study proved that there is a weakness in the tourism planning process in the city of Bou Sa?da, which negatively affects the tourism traffic, that is still weak compared to the qualifications it has, which if exploited according to a wellthought-out strategy, the city will become a targeted tourist destination.