LONDON: Tunisia wooed more tourists in the first quarter of this year, which saw a 17.4 percent increase in arrivals compared to the same period in 2018, according to Tunisian Ministry of Tourism data quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat.
The tourism sector saw an influx of up to 787.8 million dinars ($262.6 million) of hard currency revenues — an increase of 35.1 percent on last year, the newspaper reported.
Minister of Tourism Rene Trabelsi said that the tourism sector was boosted by arrivals from Europe, which rose around 22.3 percent.
After several years of shunning Tunisia in the wake of a gun attack on a beach in Sousse that killed 39 tourists and one at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis that killed 21, major European tour operators have started to return.
Arrivals from France increased 24.7 percent, while the Dutch market developed around 13.5 percent, it was reported.
Trabelsi expects more positive growth in the coming period, based on the bookings of global travel agencies.
Tunisia seeks to attract 1 million French tourists, 640,000 Russian tourists, and 390,000 German tourists this season. It forecasts that it will host around 9 million tourists overall this year.
In 2018, Tunisia’s tourism revenues jumped to $1.36 billion as the country saw the arrival of a record 8.3 million visitors, according to data from the ministry.
The sector generates about 400,000 jobs and accounts for 8 percent of Tunisia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
