TUNISIA: Tourism Revenue Down 48%

Falling tourist arrivals and overnights amid worsening industry sentiment following last year‘s terrorist attacks and the current regional conflicts cut Tunisian tourism value-added income by a worrying 48% to TND409mn ($213mn) in the first four months of the year, official data from the tourism ministry showed. The government hopes to boost tourist arrivals during the peak summer season through promoting new security measures and tax incentives for local hotels.

Plummeting much-needed FDI into the value-added and key job generator services sector cut the overall FDI into Tunisia by 22.3% y/y to TND396mn in the first quarter of 2016, preliminary figures from the investment promotion agency showed. Tunisia’s jobless rate stood at 15.4% in the first quarter of the year, the same as the preceding quarter, but rose from 15.0% in Q1 2015, amid job cuts in the value-added tourism sector and agriculture.

Tourist arrivals dropped 20% y/y to 1.146mn in January-April while tourist nights sank 44% y/y to 2.523mn.

The worsening tourism activity in Tunisia and related proceeds cut the country’s FX reserves by 8.4% y/y to TND12.374bn as of June 13, covering 112 days of imports, according to latest data from the central bank.