Tunisia’s Tourism Ministry has said there were promising economic indicators pointing to a successful tourism season.
Growth rate stood at around 13 percent by mid-February, compared with the same period in 2019.
It estimated about 650,000 tourists to have visited the country, a boom that has brought about 350 million Tunisian dinars (more than $122 million) in hard currency.
The Ministry confirmed that the upcoming tourism season “looks generally good” and may bring in higher revenues than the last season.
Sousse, Monastir (central eastern Tunisia) and Djerba Island have seen good indicators, as confirmed by figures that exceeded the limits of what was recorded early 2019 by about 13 percent.
According to data published by the Ministry, Algerian tourists topped the list of visitors to Tunisia with a 3.9 percent increase compared to the same period the year before, followed by Libyans, whose numbers increased by 4.12 percent.
European countries came third, with about 266,000 tourists, an increase of around 10.3 percent of the total number of visitors Tunisia.
France was at the top of European countries until mid-Feb, with about 37,000 visitors, followed by Italians with 8,300 tourists (an increase of 19 percent), then German tourists with nearly 7,000, marking a rise of about 3.9 percent.
French Ambassador Olivier Poivre d'Arvor announced earlier this week that about one million French tourists will visit Tunisia.
“French authorities have agreed with Tunisia to introduce desert tourism in the country,” D’Arvor said, considering that it is a tourism destination that could attract French and European tourists.
During the last tourism season, the number of tourists making hotel reservations exceeded the limits of nine million, and the financial returns exceeded the limits of five billion dinars ($1.75 billion), which contributed to a significant boost of the domestic foreign exchange reserves.
