TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia is seeking to benefit from the achieved political success by promoting a new image for its tourism through social media.
Since coming to office, Tourism Minister Amel Karboul said she would exploit the political calm and the security improvements achieved by Tunisia in a bid to promote tourism recovery by attracting visitors from various countries.
Experts note that authorising low-cost airlines to operate in Tunisia might be one way to help revive Tunisian tourism, Kapitalis reported Wednesday (April 16th).
An open skies agreement under discussion between Tunisia and the EU is expected to be finalised in May. Some speculate it could make travel to the North African jewel more affordable.
“I tell western tourists come to Tunisia, the first democracy in the Arab world! Live historic moments and support the democratic transition in Tunisia. Come also enjoy the beauty of Tunisia’s sun, its beaches and desert,” Karboul told Western media in a February 26th interview.
The ministry posted several promotional videos of touristic areas on the internet with calls for all to visit free and democratic Tunisia.
Karboul said traditional propaganda campaigns to promote Tunisian tourism “are costly and their impact is long-term, while Tunisia has limited financial resources”.
“If everything continues to be fine, our expectations suggest that we may receive 7 million tourists in 2014,” she noted.
Travel agent Wael Hamraoui said the marketing provided by the new constitution of Tunisia and the subsequent agreements offered the best promotional image of the country abroad.
This season began registering positive signals by recording a slight increase for bookings for the coming months, especially by French customers, he said.
The number of tourists coming to Tunisia was up 12% in the first three months of 2014 compared to the same period last year, according to figures released by the tourism ministry.
From January 1 to March 20, 2014, an estimated 858,870 tourists visited Tunisia. Tourism revenues rose by 2.4 percent compared to last year, reaching 476.6 million dinars.
In its March 24th report, the World Travel and Tourism Council anticipated the creation of 232,500 direct jobs in the tourism field in Tunisia this year, up 1.9% compared to 2013.
According to the same report, the sector as a whole is expected to contribute 5 billion dollars (3.6 billion euros), or 15.2 % of the Tunisian economic activity for 2014.
But tourism industry employees are not all convinced.
Those responsible for tourism in Tunisia always talk about improvement, but it’s not concrete, Fathi al-Cherif, a traditional products vendor in the old Medina of Tunis, told Magharebia.
“It is true there are tourists coming to our country, especially through cruise trips but we only receive few of them. They prefer to stay aboard the ship or wander not far from the port… Our trade is still suffering a recession,” he said.
“I think that the tourism sector began to recover in the recent period and we felt that through our work, but not enough,” echoed tourist bus driver Samir al-Balawi.
He added, “We must work to overcome the negative effects left by some security events because the security is the thing that concerns tourists the most if we want to regain their confidence.”
For that, the government is geared to rely on social networks in its promotion of the new Tunisia.
Many Facebook pages started posting pictures of the most beautiful tourist areas in Tunisia. Fakher Ayed oversees one of these promotional tourist pages, Je vais en Tunisie.
He encouraged tourism professionals to strengthen their presence on these pages in order to reach the largest number of visitors.
“Through this page we try to shed light on Tunisian destinations with pictures and videos in order to encourage viewers to come visit,” he said.
