Tunisia celebrates return to pre-Covid tourism arrivals in 2023
Pippa JacksTunisia is celebrating a return to pre-Covid levels of tourism to the country this year, with arrivals in the first 10 months of 2023 matching those in 2019.
Jamel Bouzid, the tourist office’s deputy director general, told TTG@WTM tourism had “picked up tremendously this year from all source markets”, with figures up by 53% compared with the same period in 2022.
The country has welcomed 170,000 visitors from the UK so far this year, representing a 73% increase on the same period in 2022, although these figures are still 12% lower than in 2019, which Bouzid attributed to a relative lack of air capacity from the UK after Thomas Cook collapsed that year.
However, he said that with new routes from easyJet and Tui coming online next year, ex-UK capacity was set to exceed 2019 levels in 2024. The tourist board has high hopes for the UK market, targeting a return to its historic high of 425,000 UK arrivals (achieved in 2014) by 2025/26.
Bouzid reported the creation of new regional destination management organisations (DMOs) over the past two years, with support from the European Union, was proving successful in developing new locally inspired and sustainable tourism products, such as a new culinary route and a new cinematic route.
Next year will see the launch of a further two DMOs, focusing on the Sahara and oasis regions.
He also hailed Djerba’s recent designation by Unesco as a World Heritage Site as an important milestone in Tunisia’s strategy to raise the profile of its cultural and historical attractions, and to underline the country’s diversity beyond beach holidays.
Marketing activity will ramp up in 2024 with a new advertising agency for Europe to be appointed shortly.
The tourist board also confirmed to TTG@WTM that the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict was not causing any issues for the destination.
“We have contacted trade partners and they tell us there have been no cancellations or slowing of demand,” said Sami Tounsi, trade manager of the Tunisian National Tourist Office in the UK. “Tunisia is quite far from the tensions geographically,” he added.
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