In Tunisia Algerian and Libyan tourists are boosting tourism

News added by Fred under World Travel News

37% of Tunisia’s visitors come from Algeria and Libya in the last 6 month. According to Tunisian official statistics, this percentage is on the increase, considerably boosting tourism revenues. This is all the more true as Algerian and Libyan tourists spend more than their European counterparts with an average of some 350 per week.

North African tourism in Tunisia is essentially a family tourism, which also has positive effects on the local economy (small trades, restaurants, car and house rentals), as well on the health sector especially insofar as thalassic therapy and private clinics are concerned.

Tunisia attracts each year an average of 1,5 million Libyan tourists who come both for health reasons, but also for sight seeing with a predilection for the cities of Sfax, Djerba and Tunis. Most of the Libyan tourists in Tunisia come by car crossing the border at Ras El Jedir.

More than 1, 2 million Algerians also visit Tunisia each year; 87% of them come by car or buses through the 10 border crossings between Tunisia and Algeria. For the past three years an increasing number of Algerian nationals come by charter flights to Tunisia from Algiers, Annaba or Constantine.

A number of Algerians residing in France also fly or sail to Tunisia from Paris, Marseilles and Genoa. Algerian tourists usually prefer to relax and shop in the Cap Bon region and especially in the coastal resorts of Nabeul and Hammamet, as well as Sousse.

Apart from the legendary Tunisian hospitality, the increasing number of Algerian tourists in Tunisia can also be explained by the cultural similarities between Tunisia and Algeria, as well as the absence of visas for nationals from Maghreb countries

Latest figures released last week show an increase of 4,6% in tourism revenues for the first term of 2009. The figures show that revenues from tourism amount to 1,39 billion dinars in spite of the lesser demand from European visitors as a result of the global economic downturn.

During the same period, 2,9 million tourists visited Tunisia, an increase of 1% in comparison with last year’s figures.

In 2008 revenues reached 3,3 billion dinars, against 3 billion dinars in 2007, with a record of 7 million tourists who visited the country.

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