Global Arab Network | Tunisia looking to build on its tourism success

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Tunisia looking to build on its tourism success

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:25

Tunisia's tourism sector clocked up modest growth in 2009, bucking recession in some of its key markets. The country is now looking to build on its success by enhancing its offerings, developing high-end and niche tourism to compliment its sizeable mass tourism offerings.

Tunisia is expected to post a 2% rise in tourism revenue for 2009, despite the global economic slowdown, the tourism minister, Kalil Lajimi, told the international press. This is an impressive performance as it comes on top of a bumper year in 2008, when the sector brought in a record TD3.3bn (€1.74bn) from 7m arrivals.

While visitor numbers fell by around 2% in 2009, tourism earnings totalled TD3.21bn (€1.69bn) in the first 11 months of 2009, up 2% on the same period of the previous year. The sector's growth should provide a welcome fillip for the Tunisian economy as a whole, as the industry is the country's largest foreign currency earner and the second-largest contributor to GDP after agriculture. According to the government, it employs 380,000 people directly and indirectly.

"That rise in tourism revenue, despite a drop in the number of tourists, means that the tourist spending rate had increased," Lajimi said. "It is a positive indicator in light of the global crisis."

The rise in the spending rate is an indication that Tunisia is making good progress in its efforts to move the tourism sector up the value chain and develop more high-earning segments. For some time a regular criticism of the industry was that it was over-dependent on lower-yielding mass tourism along the sun-sea-sand model.

While retaining its appeal as a comparatively low-cost package holiday destination, Tunisia is now focusing on developing the country's draw as a high-end destination and diversifying its tourism offerings. This has involved improving hotels and service standards: the authorities have been willing to close down accommodation that does not meet hygiene regulations, and are aiming to upgrade a further 200 hotels this year.

Meanwhile, certain niches have been highlighted for their growth potential. One such is health tourism, with the government aiming to make Tunisia a net medical exporter by 2016. Several towns and resorts are now developing medical and therapy centres catering for foreign visitors, an estimated 250,000 of whom came to the North African country for treatment in 2009, up from 150,000 in 2008, attracted by the high quality of health care, as well as its spa waters, year-round good weather and relatively low costs.

Foreigners come from countries including the UK, France, Belgium and Switzerland for operations including organ transplants, kidney and heart treatment, eye and plastic surgery. The government is now aiming to attract more patients from further afield, including the US, the Gulf and China. It is also pushing for the construction of 17 large "health cities", with hospitals, specialist centres and research and development facilities to support medical tourism development, as well as that of the broader health sector.

Tunisia is also aiming to enhance its brand as a high-end and sporting destination by doubling its number golf courses by 2020. According to the president of the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO), Peter Walton, golf tourism is "a promising niche for an affluent segment of visitors who are also likely to spend more". Walton told the international press that Tunisia's existing tourism infrastructure, climate and location all make it an ideal country for golfing. The country has 10 courses in tourist areas including Djerba and Tozeur, and landscaping of courses is taking place in Sousse and Hammamet. Meanwhile, potential for cultural tourism has always existed, and indeed many tourists have made their way to the ruins of Carthage, Tunis's mosaic-rich Bardo Museum, the holy city of Kairouan and the unspoiled desert.

This is not to say that Tunisia is turning its back on sun, sea and sand. On the contrary, this will remain an essential element in the country's tourism mix, while the growth of budget airlines in the region should help Tunisia remain a price-competitive destination. Certainly, it might prove difficult to meet the government's target of attracting 10m tourists annually by 2014 without continued growth of mass tourism.

Global Arab Network

Tunisie: La Force Grandissante du Tourisme
This article is published in partnership with Oxford Business Group

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