Tourism in Tunisia

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Carthage

Among Tunisia's tourist attractions are its cosmopolitan capital city of Tunis, the ancient ruins of Carthage, the Muslim and Jewish quarters of Jerba, and coastal resorts outside of Monastir. According to The New York Times, Tunisia is "known for its golden beaches, sunny weather and affordable luxuries."^[1]

Contents  [hide] 1 History 2 Attractions 2.1 Resorts 2.2 New developments 3 Statistics 4 References

[edit]History

According to Garrett Nagle in his book Advanced Geography, Tunisia's tourist industry "benefits from its Mediterranean location and its tradition of low cost package holidays from Western Europe."^[2] The development of tourism dates back to 1960 through the joint efforts of government and private groups. In 1962, tourism, with 52,000 entries and 4,000 beds, had a revenue of two million dollars and becomes the main source of foreign exchange in the country.^[3] However, it is not popular with American tourists who are wary of Middle East destinations since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.^[2]

Until recently, Tunisia's main attraction was on its northeast coastline around Tunis; however, the Seventh National Development Plan of 1989 created several new tourist areas including the resort at Port-el-Kantaoui.^[2] The tourism sector now represents 6.5% of Tunisia's GDP and provides 340,000 jobs of which 85,000 are direct jobs, or 11.5% of the working population with a high share of seasonal employment.

France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are the four traditional tourist markets, though Tunisia lost roughly 500,000 tourists from Germany after 9/11.^[4] From 2003-2004, it regained tourists, and 2007 saw arrivals increasing by 3 percent over that of 2006.^[4]

[edit]Attractions

The souk in Tunis.

[edit]Resorts

This sector is popular mainly on the east coast, totaling more than 95% of beds. The following is a list of the largest resorts and the percentge of nights out of the total:

• Sousse-Monastir-Mahdia (36%)
• Nabeul-Hammamet (24%)
• Djerba-Zarzis (24%)
• Tunis-Zaghouan (10%)
• Tabarka-Aïn Draham (2%)

[edit]New developments

In recent years, ecotourism, spa and medical tourism are emerging onto Tunisia's tourist scene and growing very fast. According to the former Minister of Tourism thanks to the sahel (sousse monastir mahdia) Ahmed Smaou, "The medical tourism has a great future ahead of us."^[5]Tourists must have a visa and an immunization certificate of yellow fever and cholera.^[6]

[edit]Statistics

In 2000, there were 197,400 hotel beds in roughly 95,977 rooms with an occupancy rate at 56%.^[6] 5,057,193 travellers came to Tunisia that year.^[6] That year, tourist expenditures were nearly $1.5 billion.^[6] According to 2002 US Department of State estimates, the average daily cost of staying in Tunis or Carthage was $146, compared to $114 in other areas of Tunisia.^[6]

A large number of tourists to Tunisia come from Eastern Europe, and the nationalities of major tourist countries is shown here: Libyans (1 472 411 visitors), French (1 234 735), Algerians (945 324), Germans (547 403), Italians (464 323) and British (350 693).^[3] There were 1 251 251 domestic tourists staying across the country for 2.75 million nights in 2006.