Mauritania - Why Nobody Visits This African Country

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Why nobody visits Mauritania? Mauritania, known officially as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Northwest Africa. The Atlantic Ocean borders the country to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest.
Mauritanian territory covers 90% of the Sahara; by landmass, it is the 11th-largest country in Africa and the 28th-largest globally. About 4.3 million people reside in the temperate south of the country, with around a third living in the capital and largest city, Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.
With such an attractive profile, the tourism business in Mauritania is non-existent because no one wants to have a feel of this nomadic country. In this video, we will discuss why nobody visits Mauritania. As we proceed, we urge you to watch until the end.
The Tourist Murder
After Mauritanian independence in 1960, tourism developed slowly, partly due to the Western Sahara war and inaccessible routes. In 1999, Trailblazer Guides published the 650-page edition of Sahara Overland, describing the country's geography, which included several routes in Mauritania.
Some adventurous travelers started hitching rides eastwards on the Mauritania Railway. Completing a new inland road linking Nouadhibou with Nouakchott, and introducing inexpensive charter flights from France directly to Atar helped affordable fly-in tourism gain a foothold in the country around the turn of the millennium.
On Christmas Eve, 2007, French visitors were shocked by the murder of the Tollet family, a tourist and their guide near Aleg. The situation prompted the cancellation of the Dakar rally scheduled to be held in Mauritania. To exacerbate the already tense and chaotic situation in Mauritania, two kidnappings in November and December 2009 prompted the European government's foreign ministries to issue travel advice to its citizens.
A Country so big and Empty
Though Mauritania is a significant and empty country, almost twice as big as France, most tourists avoid this Saharan country because it is not very fascinating. Even in hotels, there is a need for an internet connection, and the infrastructure is inferior to most single-lane highways. Available flights are expensive and don’t connect directly to the country.
Located in the Sahara desert, many rough roads drive through deserts, and the weather can be scorching. The risk of kidnapping is also very high in Mauritania, and the border areas with Mali, Algeria, and Western Sahara are not safe.
Before the kidnappings and executions that scared the tourists away, the Atar region was Mauritania's most visited location. According to a tourist who visited in 2013, Atar had become part of the unseen Africa when a guide told him he was the only tourist in Atar and probably the entire region.
The cancellation of Air France's direct flights from Paris to Atar was partly responsible for this. In plain truth, in the last decade, most people avoided Mauritania because the country has very little to offer.
Mauritania in Recent Times
Due to the improved security situation in 2018, the Le Point Voyages charter flights to Atar resumed. With a unique feature on French television, the objective was to revive desert tourism in the Adrar region of Mauritania. However, the current climate may pose a big challenge.
To offer extra security to tourists, the Mauritanian Army ensures that the country's largely desolate far north and east remain off-limits to regular tourists. These places are rarely visited by tourists, except for a few trans-Saharan journeys in less volatile times.
The Richat structure and Fort Saganne are some tourist highlights in the Mauritanian Sahara. In 2010, an average of 1,500 tourists visited Mauritania. Though this seems like an improvement compared to the past, the number is deficient compared to the population, which stands at over 4 million.
Although the problems in Mauritania are serious, they have little impact on the tourists because it has not been a tourist haven in the last couple of years. As security continues to improve, we hope to see a great bounce back in the tourism industry in the subsequent years.