Tunisia’s hospitality and tourism industries have taken another blow since the 2011 uprisings; however, the hospitality industry has already started to diversify its source markets to counteract the expected decrease in visitors as a result of recent shootings.
Tunisia, a country that has had been making headway in its tourism recovery process post the 2011 revolution, once again faces uncertainty following a succession of two high-profile terrorist attacks, which resulted in the deaths of international tourists.
Prior to this year, arrivals had returned to levels above six million (6,071,000 in 2014 and 6,785,100 in 2013, according to Euromonitor) after figures plummeted to 4.79mn in 2011 from close to 7mn in 2010.
At the time of going to press, a state of emergency was in place in Tunisia, a move called by the country’s president following the shootings in Port El Kantaoui, Sousse, in which 39 travellers were killed on June 26.
The attack, which took place less than four months after a similar incident at the National Museum in Tunis, has not only had an immediate impact on the country’s tourism industry, but is expected to cause lasting damage for months to come, especially as numerous foreign offices have advisories warning against anything except essential travel to the country.
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According to Tourism Minister Salma Loumi, the tourism industry is estimated to lose around $515mn this year, a heavy blow for a country reliant on revenues from visitors.
Commenting on how the industry handled the events, The Risk Advisory Group head of intelligence & analysis Henry Wilkinson said that it “demonstrated that the better prepared tour operators and hoteliers are to deal with such incidents, the better equipped they are to manage their response. It is very hard to respond to such incidents in an effective way if detailed crisis planning has not been undertaken in advance.
“Each situation is completely different depending on the country the attack takes place, the location of the hotel, the political situation and many other factors. What they all have in common however is the fact that it is very difficult for any company to defend against an armed attack.
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