Tunisia sees sharp rise in tourism revenues

Tunis, Jan 18 (IANS) Tunisia's tourism revenues grew by 110.4 per cent during the first 10 days of 2023, compared to the same period last year, said the Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts.

"In the first 10 days of this year, the number of tourists visiting Tunisia is up 147.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2022," said a Ministry statement.

For the whole year of 2022, tourist revenues increased by 83.3 per cent compared to those of 2021, and nearly 6.5 million foreign tourists visited Tunisia, recording an increase of 160 per cent compared to the number in 2021, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Tunisian tourism is an important sector of the economy, representing 14 per cent of the gross domestic product and offering nearly 400,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.

The Tunisian tourism sector has experienced the worst crisis in the past decade, as it was hit by the political crisis, called the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, and the terrorist attacks at the Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis in March 2015 and at a beach resort in Sousse in June 2015. Since 2020, the crisis has been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.