Tunisian tourism revenue continues to rise. The sector's income amounted to 3.7 billion dinars (1.23 billion dollars) during the first eleven months of 2018, an amount up 40.5% compared to the same period in 2017, according to a report prepared by the Ministry of Tourism.
The number of tourists increased by 17.2% between January 1 and July 30 of the current year, compared to the same period last year, to 7.5 million.
During the period under review, strong increases in tourist arrivals were recorded in the main issuing markets, particularly in Europe: the United Kingdom (+345%), Belgium (+99%), France (+38%) and Germany (+35%).
These figures mark a clear recovery of the Tunisian tourism industry and tourism revenue after several years of poor performance following the political unrest after the January 2011 revolution and the wave of terrorist attacks, the deadliest of which were recorded in 2015 in Sousse (39 deaths) and Le Bardo (21 deaths).
For the year 2018 as a whole, the government expects 8 million tourists to arrive, up from 7.1 million in 2014.
In Tunisia, tourism represents about 8% of the gross domestic product, provides hundreds of thousands of jobs and is an important source of foreign exchange.