Managers of Algerian museums were quoted as saying by the July 19 edition of Al-Khabar newspaper that locals express only minor interest in visiting their sites. For an instance, the manager of the Algerian National Museum of Antiquities, Lakhdar Daryas, said that the umber of visitors at the museum during the first six months of the current year reached only 2,830, despite the cheap tickets, which does not surpass the AD20 mark. Antique mosaics, Roman glass work and sculptures and Islamic art are on display in this museum.
Lakhdar, who has been the manager of the museum for the past 18 years, said in sorrow that the parents and the general atmosphere in Algeria encourage the young children only to follow football games, and he estimates that most of the Algerian students do not even know names of Algerian museums.
Lakhdar added that Algerian museums also suffer from low budget which does not allow them purchasing new valuable exhibits.
The manager of Bardo Museum, which is considered the biggest and famous museum in the Algerian capital and displays prehistoric findings and ethnography as well as regional jewelry, costumes, leatherwork and weaponry, Mrs. Azuq, spoke about a similar situation. Despite the museum's efforts to bring pupils to visit it, schools' managers usually answered them that
they do not have the required means for organizing this kind of activity.
However, Mrs. Azuq said that during the last three years there is a significant increase in the number of visitors; most of them are foreign tourists, emigrants and Algerian families which bring their guests from abroad to visit the museum. Mrs. Azuq called on tourist agencies, schools and media to take part in encouraging this cultural habit of visiting the national museums, which is not inherent at present in the Algerian life.
