With its rich history dating back 3,000 years, the country, that has been at the crossroads of civilizations since historic times, has always heavily relied on tourism with the industry’s contribution to the national GDP standing well above eight percent in 2010.
Yet, as per data released by the World Travel & Tourism Council, the past five years have delivered negative results. Arrivals for example, have dropped 25 percent year-on-year in 2015 to 5.36 million from 7.16 million in 2014, leading to a downturn in annual economic growth to 0.8 percent from 2.3 percent in 2014.
As Mohamed Bachar, counsellor, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, and Albania, Tunisian Tourism Board, noted, following the unfortunate happenings in June 2015, a number of safety and other relevant measures have been introduced, and both the government as well as the private sector embarked on various initiatives to convey the message that the country welcomes back visitors, however, the industry is yet to fully rebound.
“The only markets supporting the Tunisian tourism industry now are Algeria, Libya, France and Russia,” claimed Bachar.
From Great Britain for example, arrivals plummeted 94.9 percent since the beginning of the year up until June 10, while from the Netherlands for instance, figures dropped 82 percent. On the other hand, demand from Russia showed an upward trend.
This was also reaffirmed by Mejda Bouabid, senior sales executive, Hotel Africa Tunis.
“Lately, we have come to rely on the Russian market, which helped a bit in the restoration of the tourism industry in general,” attested Bouabid.
As Bachar explained, in order to restore the country’s image – and visitors’ confidence – effective tourist police units have been placed at sites frequented by travellers and around 1,000 extra security officers have been deployed across the country with stationed and patrolled units being send to beaches and the surroundings of popular resorts.
Security has been also enhanced at airports, border checkpoints, hotels and even in certain car parkings.
