The Tunisian Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Mohamed Moez Belhassine, reported that 4.3 million tourists visited Tunisia, between January 1 and September 20, 2022, which is an increase of 168% compared to the same period of 2021.
The Minister said that the goal for Tunisian tourism is to reach 50 to 60% of the levels of the pre-covid year 2019 when the country welcomed 9.4 million tourists. Currently, the tourism numbers represent -37% of the 2019 levels.
As for the tourism revenues until Sept 20, they have increased by 86% since the beginning of the year and exceeded 3 billion dinars (a difference of -27% compared to 2019), said Belhassine.
The Minister of Tourism stressed that nearly 550,000 Algerian tourists visited Tunisia, since July 15, 2022, the date of the opening of the land border crossings between Tunisia and Algeria.
"This number can reach, according to tourism professionals, 800,000 to 1 million Algerian tourists, at the end of the year 2022," said the Minister of Tourism.
The minister also announced the plan of recovery whose main focus is on diversification of the offer. “We want to develop various promising niches, for example, sports, gastronomic tourism... We have set up culinary routes, and itineraries for cinema enthusiasts who can follow in the footsteps of films shot in Tunisia such as Star Wars, The English Patient and Indiana Jones,” said the minister.
To boost tourism revenues and arrivals, Tunisia also wants to encourage travelers to discover other destinations than Djerba, Monastir or Hammamet and focuses its marketing efforts on Tozeur in particular. In 2019, the “pearl of southern Tunisia” opened a luxurious hotel, the first establishment of the Asian group Anantara. The visitors should be attracted by a soon-to-be-launched Paris-Tozeur flight.