Coronavirus: Tunisia unveils credit loan for tourism sector

The Tunisian Tourism Minister Wednesday announced the allocation of nearly $172 million (TND500 million) in the form of loans to help hotels cope with adverse effects of covid-19.

Mohamed Ali Toumi said the credit will be available till March next year, but only for one-star to three-star hotels which lost 25 per cent of their revenues in March and 40 per cent in April compared to the previous financial year.

The program does not include five-star hotels and allocation of the credit to four-star hotels depends on each application, Webdo Tunis reports, indicating that hotels will use the funds mainly to pay salaries.

The grantees will reimburse the loan over seven year at the rate of 2 per cent.

Tunisia in March imposed a lockdown in most of the country as a way to curb the spread of the respiratory disease. The measure halted all activities of the tourism sector which is the second largest GDP contributor.

The announcement of the credit comes as Banque de Tunisie, the country’s central bank, in April projected that the tourism sector will lose $1.4 billion in terms of revenues as result of the pandemic.