Once known as a place for old, ill or health-conscious Algerians to receive cures, spa resorts have seen a surge in family vacation traffic.
Text and photos by Nazim Fethi for Magharebia in Algiers – 09/04/10
Algeria's hot spring spas have long been popular among older citizens seeking calm, restorative cures, but word has now spread to Algerian families, changing what was once a "niche" vacation destination.
During this year's spring school break, which ended on Monday (April 6th), hordes of holiday-makers laid siege to hot spring sites and their associated resorts in the north-eastern part of the country.
Salah, a bank clerk, and his pharmacist wife Rabia have taken sick leave to take their children to the wilaya of Guelma, some 550 kilometers east of Algiers.
"We work all year round, except for one month in the summer. The children are on holiday; we can’t leave them alone in the house for the whole of the holidays, so we have to make a sacrifice," Rabia tells us.
The road between Algiers and Guelma is normally quiet on a week-end day. But on March 19th, at the start of the spring vacation, the road out of Constantine is filled with a constant stream of Guelma-bound coaches marked "excursion".
First stop of the hot spring circuit: Hammam El Maskhoutine, the oldest and best-known thermal spa in the whole region. The complex’s car park evokes that of sports stadium, with vehicles and pedestrians queued up outside the gate.
"We've received 30,000 visitors, 3,000 cars and 250 buses this Friday," says Amar Taoutaou, technical director of the complex.
At the hotel reception desk, it is pandemonium; everyone wants a room or a chalet, whilst the receptionists shout at the tops of their voices that the hotel is completely full.
Frequent visitor Bachir, a man well into his sixties, has just arrived from Constantine: "I took the first share taxi I could find to Guelma and from there I caught the bus to the Hammam," he tells Magharebia. "Now they're telling me it's full. I'll wait until midday to see if a room becomes available."
Bachir complains about the high cost of lodging. "In spring, the prices soar. But that’s the best time of the season to take a cure for my rheumatism," he says.
"I've gone round all the hammams in the area, but this one’s still the best. My pain goes when I come and bathe here," Bachir tells us as he heads off to await an available room.
Hammam El Maskhoutine offers both leisure options to tourists and families and thermal cures for the infirm and the elderly. In addition to the 44-hectare public complex, there are a number of traditional baths, some of them dating from the Roman era. But it is the green spaces and relaxation areas that most appeal to young families and children.
For the many old-timers, however, the young holiday-makers change the spa atmosphere.
Spa guest El Hadja Saliha, a 72-year-old Algiers resident who has seen many traditional hammams and resorts, is unimpressed by Hammam El Maskhoutine. "The health insurance company arranged for me to have a 21-day cure here, but if I had the money, I’d be going somewhere else," she tells Magharebia.
"And I'd have avoided the school holidays," she adds.
Fifteen kilometers away is the brand-new Ouled Ali thermal spa, which boasts two private complexes and a government-owned hammam. The car parks are full of people, the hotels and chalets are fully booked and treatment room queues begin building at 7 o’clock in the morning.
In the El Baraka facility's lobby, an elderly patient is complaining to a receptionist about noisy children playing in the hotel corridors. The receptionist points out that families are visiting for the holidays.
"But what are you doing for the patients who have come here for a cure?" the man demands. The receptionist admits there is nothing she can do.
"Look at those children dancing and singing outside reception," she tells the frustrated patron. "They've come here on a school trip. Must we ban them from coming?"
Hot spring spas have long been frequented by patients to whom health insurers recommend a thermal cure. But over the past three years, so many families have begun to flood these resorts during school holidays that the facilities have been forced to expand their premises.
It is the same everywhere: at Hammam El Maskhoutine, where a new hammam, new reception facilities and a new clinic have opened and where a new five-star hotel and play areas are under construction, or at El Baraka, where new chalets are being built, or at the superb Bouchahrine complex, where an ultramodern treatment center is nearing completion.
Along with the surge in new construction to accommodate the ever-growing demand, the rush on spa resorts has also led to a surge in rates.
Salim, in his forties, has found a solution. The Annaba accountant gets together with his neighbors and hires minibuses every day to travel the hundred kilometers to the hot springs in Guelma.
"We bring our food with us. The only thing we pay for is the entry to the hammam, which costs a hundred dinars. The hotels and bungalows? They’re for the people who have been sent by their health insurers, or rich people," he says.
Opinions differ as to what prompted the thermal spa craze. Said, a teacher from Laghouat in the Sahara, has a very simple explanation: "We have nowhere to go."
"These complexes are a combination of theme parks, children’s play areas and a way for adults to recharge their batteries, so it’s a way to bring practicality and pleasure together," he tells Magharebia.
Young people in the area around Guelma, meanwhile, see the boost in local tourism as manna from heaven.
In Ouled Ali, a village tucked away in the green mountain scenery, local resident Rabah explains that before the vacationers' recent frenzy over the hot springs, "there was nothing except agriculture and livestock-rearing".
"No-one had ever heard of us, but with the two resorts and people coming for cures, everyone's getting something out of it," he adds. "We work in the complexes, selling things that the patients want," the young local tells Magharebia.
"We're starting to feel like we actually exist."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link:
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2010/04/09/reportage-01.
