When we see these thousands of bathers gathered on our beaches, veiled parasol once morest veiled parasol and table once morest table, we have the right to wonder if we can call them tourists, as counted by the public authorities, services of the Ministry of Tourism and Crafts and those of Civil Protection which count millions for each beach in a single summer season.
An arithmetic of which they have the secret, because we do not know or seen a system to appreciate at its true value this attendance. In fact, we multiply every 2 meters, estimated space of a bather lying down, by the 60 days of summer. The longer the beach, the more millions of tourists there are.
According to the most accepted definition, “a tourist is someone who travels for his pleasure, to relax, to enrich himself, to cultivate himself”. For the World Tourism Organization (ILO), “it’s no longer just anyone on the move outside of their usual environment, it’s a larger set of hugely varied activities and practices”.
Knowing this, do the Algerian holidaymakers who jostle on our beaches meet this definition? Hard to say. Those who doubt it temper the name of the officials and qualify them as summer visitors. There are of course exceptions for the privileged: the clientele and regulars of enclosed and posh places where you have to show your credentials.
These summer visitors, whether they have chosen hotel establishments and what looks like them from afar, or to stay with the locals form this mass which rushes towards the coastal cities.
Editor’s note: Mosaïque is a press review that offers the reader a selective and quick overview of the key topics covered by renowned daily newspapers and media in the Arab world. Arab news in French is content with a very summary publication, sending the reader directly to the link of the original article. The opinion expressed in this page is the author’s own and does not necessarily reflect that of Arab News in French.
