Tunisia plans to increase tourist numbers by 75%

Tunisia plans to increase the number of tourists visiting the country by 75 per cent to reach 10 million by 2020, up from 5.7 million last year. The announcement was made by Tourism Minister Salma Elloumi Rekik during a debate which began on Wednesday to develop a national strategy for the advancement of the sector.

The new strategy, which covers the period 2017-2020, aims to double tourism revenues, which reached $1 billion last year. The debate will continue until 22 May and will cover all of the country’s governorates.

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The minister said that the number of tourists increased by 30 per cent during the first three months of this year compared to the corresponding period of 2016, due to the return of traditional markets, especially Germany and France. She added that discussions will include a number of initiatives to support tourism, “Such as identifying procedures to improve access to Tunisian tourist destinations, increasing the quality of tourist offers and diversifying them, and developing an effective promotional plan.”

Tunisian tourism has suffered a severe decline in the years following the 2011 revolution. The worst was in 2015 when there were three terrorist attacks in the country, two of them in tourist areas.