Tunisia’s Travel and Tourism Sector Rejuvenated

Hope is twinkling in Tunisia after a report stated that sectors involved in travel and tourism have attained positive results during 2012. The report from Timetric claimed that tourism has recovered from the woes of the 2011 revolution. It pointed out that the increase in activity of local tourism and the arrival of foreign tourists during 2012 has led to the bouncing back o f the total revenue at a rate of 12,75%.
Although the country is yet to gain back its post-revolution tranquility and stability, there are expectations that numbers will continue rising. The government has embarked on promoting the country as a peaceful tourist destination despite the political instability and terrorist concerns within the region. It’s also improving tourism infrastructure and made flexible tourism and airline regulations.
The airline industry also benefitted from the influx of tourists. Their revenues registered a 39,7% growth rate during the past year after a 29,5% decline in 2011. However, despite the recovery, airlines relied heavily on tour operators to generate flight bookings due to the high fares charged by international airlines.
With minor social and political restoration and modified airline regulations, airline industry prospects are promising. Proposed open-skies agreement with the EU to bilateral air agreements with various nations in Europe, Africa and the Arab region, will act as important growth drivers for the Tunisian airlines industry.
The report also underlined that Tunisia will have to compete with Morocco and Egypt in attracting tourists and must eventually search for new markets because the European countries are still struggling with their financial crisis. It concluded that an emerging market for North Africa is the medical and wellness tourism that needs to be taken advantage of before forecasting that it will strongly grow in 2017.