TUNISIA: Tunisia Tourism In Difficulty After Terrorist Attack A Year Ago

Tunisia’s tourism sector is still struggling to recover, a year after a terrorist attack on a beach in Sousse killed 38 tourists.

Surveillance cameras and security checks have become the norm in all holiday hotspots; and hotels are anxious to show tourists, Tunisia is a safe destination.

Tourism accounts for 7 percent of Tunisia’s gross domestic product and provides thousands of jobs, making it a key source of foreign currency.

But tourist arrivals fell to 5 million last year, the lowest in decades, after mostly British tourists were gunned down in Sousse.

The attack came just months after 21 tourists were killed in a jihadist attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.

As the high season kicks off, authorities and tourism firms are hoping to boost confidence and encourage bookings with increased security checks.

Mohammed Bujdaria, regional director in charge of tourism in Yasmine-Hammamet said “Ahead of the summer tourist season, we’ve focused on security. Tourist attractions, restaurants, historical sites and hotels are inspected almost daily. We ensure that the new rules imposed by the government are respected.”

Authorities are now giving their all to restore the country’s image as a top holiday destination.

Speaking on the matter, Anis Suissy, director of Yasmine-Hammamet’s Royal Resort hotel said “We used to attract tourists with sun and beaches. It was a selling point. We are spending a lot on security. And we try to put forward the efforts that our establishment and the State are doing in this regard.”

European markets has also declined by 65 percent since 2010, the year before a revolution toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

So Tunisia is turning to Eastern Europe to boost its struggling tourism industry.

Abdellatif Hamam, General director of the Tunisian National Tourism Board said “We hope that this year, the Russians will give us their trust. It’s a market we’ve been working on for the past decade, and we are trying to revitalize it.”

Government hopes to welcome 300,000 Russian tourists this year, six times the number in 2015.

But authorities are leaving nothing to chance by making moves to deploy additional 1,500 security agents to further boost security in the country.

Despite Threats, World Tourism Numbers Hit Record 1.18 Billion In 2015

The number of international tourists rose 4.4 percent worldwide in 2015 to hit a record 1.18 billion despite concerns over terrorism, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said Monday.

Tourism arrivals were up 5 percent in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, but fell 8 percent in North Africa where nations like Tunisia were hit by terrorist attacks, it said in a statement. It is the sixth consecutive year of above average growth in global tourism since the 2009 economic crisis, the Madrid-based body said. The UNWTO had predicted international tourism arrivals would increase by 3-4 percent in 2015, after expanding 4.7 percent the previous year. Global tourism figures were hard hit by the global financial crisis, declining 4 percent in 2009 – as an outbreak of swine flu also contributed to cash-strapped people staying at home – but have risen in each year since.

A rise of 3.1 percent was also reported for the Middle East, in which the number of tourists has been rising since 2014.

Tunisia's tourism industry was badly shaken in March by an attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis, followed by one in June in the resort of Sousse were 59 tourists were gunned down in cold blood. These attacks and others in the region came as North African and Middle Eastern countries struggle to regain the trust of vacationers scared off by the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region in 2011. "We are facing now a global threat," UNWTO Director Taleb Rifai told a press conference before appealing for governments to do all they can to boost security.

"We can see that many factors like changes in oil prices and crises in different parts of the world have affected the tourist numbers of 2015. As tourism's development is largely connected with security, we should not let fear and panic rule over us. We should continue travelling. Security is only the issue of Egypt, France, Thailand, Indonesia or Turkey, which have faced terrorist attacks in the recent period. This is an issue for all countries and it should be handled globally," Rifai said.

UNWTO predicts international tourism arrivals will increase 4 percent during this year.

EGYPT: Egypt Tourism Faces Ruin, As Tunisia Revealed 70 Hotels Shut After Terrorist Attack

Mourners gathered after the deadly assault, which killed 30 Brits

EGYPT faces ruin following last week’s air disaster after Tunisia revealed 70 major hotels have shut since it was targeted by Islamic State five months ago.

Intelligence experts suspect the same terror network planted a bomb feared to have downed last week’s Metrojet aircraft from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg killing all 224 passengers.

Brit and Russian holidaymakers are still being evacuated from the resort which has been placed in lockdown while investigators probe the cause.

But if terrorism was to blame, Tunisian officials warned Egypt would face the same demise as its tourist industry following June’s Sousse beach gun massacre which left 38 people dead including 30 Brits.

In Sousse 26 hotels have shut their doors after the UK and other nations banned all but essential travel to the north African country.

Tunisia relied heavily on British tourists with around 500,000 travelling to beach resorts each year.

And with 900,000 Brits making Sharm el-Skeikh their holiday destination, the Egyptian government is sweating on a similar type of tourism blow.

Tunisian officials said the nation’s tourist industry was on its knees.

"The situation is very sluggish," said Radhouane Ben Salah, the head of the Tunisian Federation of Hotels.

With reservations at "no more than 20%", 70 hotels have had to close since September because the lack of clients.

More are expected to follow, he added.

Ben Salah said he expected unemployment – which already stands at 30% - to climb as hotel staff would be forced out of work.

One in six Tunisians already lives below the poverty line.

The country's key tourism sector contributes to 10% of gross domestic product, and employs 400,000 people

Ben Salah said hotel owners and the government had agreed to look after employees who would be forced out of work.

He said the government would provide them with a 200-dinar monthly subsidy (£67) and social security coverage for a renewable six-month period.

But it has been badly shaken by the beach massacre and shootings at the National Bardo Museum in March which left 30 tourists dead.

TUNISIA: Tourists Shun Tunisia After Islamist Attacks

The number of foreign tourists in Tunisia dropped by 20 percent to four million in the first eight months of the year after two Islamist attacks that killed dozens of Western visitors, the tourism minister said on Monday.

Tunisia, for which foreign tourism is an important contributor to gross domestic product, has been under a state of emergency since the attacks. Security has been heightened around tourist sites and high-profile locations in the capital.

Thirty-eight people were killed by a gunman at a hotel in Sousse on the Mediterranean coast in June, three months after 21 tourists were killed by gunmen attacking the Bardo National Museum in the capital Tunis.

The Islamic State militant group claimed the two worst attacks in the North African country's history.

"The number of tourists dropped to about four million since the beginning of the year through to Sept. 10 compared with five million who visited Tunisia in the same period last year," Tourism Minister Salma Loumi said.

Some hotels have closed while foreign tour groups have cancelled some routes, cruises and packages. On Monday, Spanish hotel chain Riu, part of German holiday group TUI, said it was reviewing its presence in Tunisia.

"Three of the hotels we manage will be closed over the winter months and we need to talk to the owners of the other hotels we manage there to see what we can do," said a spokeswoman for Riu, which runs 10 hotels in Tunisia.

Several Spanish newspapers, citing news agency Efe, reported earlier that Riu had decided to leave the North African state.

Tourism accounts for some 7 percent of Tunisia's GDP.

While acknowledging the difficult situation for the country, Loumi said the industry should take advantage of this time to start reforms, including improving the quality of services and diversifying tourism options.

Tunisia has cut its economic growth forecast to 0.5 percent for this year, down from an initially anticipated 3 percent.

Britain is advising tourists against travel to the country after 30 of its citizens were killed in the Sousse attack, in which an Islamist gunman opened fire on holidaymakers as they lounged at the beach and poolside.

Tour operators TUI and Thomas Cook have shelved their Tunisia programmes from Britain until next year, while tour operators across Europe have shifted some capacity to destinations such as Spain.

SPAIN: Global Tourist Numbers Up In First Half - UN

The number of international tourists rose by 4.0% worldwide during the first half of 2015 although security and health concerns hit hard some African destinations, the UN World Tourism Organisation said Thursday.

Some 538 million tourists made trips to international destinations between January and June 2015 - 21 million more compared with the same period last year, the Madrid-based body said in a statement.

"These results show that, despite increased volatility, tourism continues to consolidate the positive performance it has had over the last five years and to provide development and economic opportunities worldwide," said the organization's head Taleb Rifai.

Global tourism figures were hard hit by the global financial crisis, declining 4.0% in 2009 as an outbreak of swine flu also contributed to cash-strapped people staying at home but have risen in each year since.

Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the world's most visited region, all saw a 5% increase in arrivals, with the Americas posting growth of 4.0%.

But Africa saw a drop of 6.0%.

North Africa, which was shaken by terrorist attacks in Tunisia, a popular lower-cost beach holiday spot for Europeans, saw arrivals fall by 10% while sub-Saharan Africa had a decline of 4.0%.

"Alongside the impacts of the terrorist attacks, African destinations have been impacted by the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak in a few West African countries and the slower growth of regional economies depending on the export of oil and other commodities," the tourism body said.

Tunisia's tourism industry, which had been recovering after the Arab Spring unrest, was badly shaken in March by an attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis, followed by one in June in the resort of Sousse, that killed a total of 59 tourists.

The UN World Tourism Organization predicts international tourism arrivals will increase by 3.0% to 4.0% during all of 2015, after expanding by 4.7% last year.

TUNISIA: Victims Of Gun Attack Start Legal Proceedings Against Travel Firm

A group of Britons who were victims of a beach gun attack in Tunisia have started legal action against holiday company Thomson, claiming that the operator, part of TUI Group, failed to provide adequate security at its hotel.

Thirty Britons were killed in June at a hotel in Sousse on the Mediterranean coast, the biggest loss of British lives in such an incident since the July 2005 bombings in London.

Several families who lost loved ones, as well as a number of those who were seriously injured in the attack, brought a claim for damages against Thomson through lawyers Irwin Mitchell, the law firm said in a statement on Thursday.

Formal claim letters had been sent to Thomson, but no formal response had been received, said the statement.

Irwin Mitchell's head of international personal injury Clive Garner said that Thomson was legally responsible for any failures to provide reasonable security precautions and adequate warnings to guests before and during their stays.

"It is clear that the security measures were not sufficient to prevent a lone gunman from accessing the hotel and its grounds, nor were they robust enough to stop him during a prolonged 30 to 40 minute rampage," he said.

Two weeks after the attack, thousands of tourists rushed to leave Tunisia after Britain warned another attack was "highly likely" and told them to leave.

TUI, the world's largest leisure and tourism company, said in August that cancelled holidays to Tunisia would cost it between €35m and €40m in total in its current financial year.