Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are countries with great tourism potential. Tourism has been identified as one of the vectors of development, but the enormous risk of environmental degradation in the case of an unsustainable tourism development calls for immediate action. Managers of a tourist destination should be aware of the pressures that degrade the landscape and of the means to control those pressures.

The "Destinations" project stimulates the policy-makers and tourism promoters to use tools of sustainable tourism management. This particularly refers to the Tourism Carrying Capacity Assessment (TCCA), which has been recognised as the most efficient tool for the evaluation of environmental impacts of tourism activities. This is an extremely important phase of the development of a healthy local economy as it proposes a vision and strategic planning process for a given destination.